The Hidden Man

April 28, 2008
The trio of unusual characters forged into a family unit in Flacco's The Last Nightingale
—Det. Randall Blackburn and his two adopted children, Shane Nightingale and Vignette Nightingale, who are now grown to young adulthood—face new challenges in this entertaining sequel, set in 1915 as San Francisco prepares to host the Pan-Pacific International Exposition on fairgrounds constructed on earthquake rubble. Blackburn is assigned to babysit famed mesmerist J.D. Duncan, one of the exposition's headliners, who introduces the recently invented drug methylenedioxymethamphetamine to America. A woman with her sights set on Blackburn, a killer with his sights set on Duncan and civic leaders bent on rebuilding San Francisco's reputation at any cost, all threaten the members of the Blackburn family, whose evolving relationships form this historical's most appealing aspect.