A Dangerous Road

It's Memphis, Tennessee, 1968, and PI (or, in his words, odd-jobs man) Smokey Dalton has had problems. The oldest dates back to 1939, when 10-year-old Smokey hid in a closet while a mob abducted, tortured, and lynched his parents. Presently, the Memphis sanitation workers' strike is dragging on, protests are fast becoming riots, and talk of an appearance by Martin Luther King Jr., Smokey's boyhood friend, is fanning both hopes and fears. His latest problem, however, is Laura Hathaway, a young, rich, white woman who's just delivered the news that Smokey's a beneficiary in her mother's will, and she'd like to know why. "I'm obligated to make sure you get your cash." Her eyes clouded for a moment. It was beginning to look like disposing of Momma's assets had become a tricky and uncomfortable proposition. "You know," I said, "sometimes people should be allowed their secrets."

"Do you think so, Mr. Dalton?" she asked, and this time there was no condescension in her voice. "Do you really think so? A man like you who takes odd jobs? Do you allow people their secrets, or do you just want to hang onto yours?"

Then she let herself out, closing the wooden door gently behind her. Her shadow moved across the frosted glass, and she was gone.

But not for long, because Smokey and Laura soon join forces to find the answers, uncover the secrets, and to weather together--and separately--one of the darkest times in recent American history. With A Dangerous Road, Kris Nelscott (also known as Kristine Kathryn Rusch, the award-winning and prolific science fiction author) delivers an intricately plotted, historically resonant, first-person narrative that, while not hard-boiled, echoes faintly nonetheless of Chandler and Hammett. A Smokey Dalton series? 'Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished. --Michael Hudson