The Fitzgerald Ruse

June 1, 2009
At the start of de Castrique’s winning second Sam Blackman mystery (after 2008’s Blackman’s Coffin
), the former U.S. military CID officer and his lover, Nakayla Robertson, are setting up a detective agency in Asheville, N.C. Their eccentric first client, Ethel Barkley, wants them to retrieve a lockbox she claims contains a purloined F. Scott Fitzgerald manuscript. Soon after Sam and Nakayla take possession of the sealed box, someone steals it from their office, killing a security guard in the process. The theft may be part of an attempt to maintain secrecy of an American fascist organization that flourished in the 1930s—or it may be rooted in the immediate past, as rogue Blackwater mercenaries (who cost Sam a leg in Iraq) come after the loot they imagine he stole from them. Ethel’s subsequent murder raises the stakes. Readers will hope to see a lot more of the book’s amiable characters, in particular, Sam and Nakayla, whose comfortable banter lends the story much of its charm.

July 1, 2009
A complicated mystery with literary roots challenges a rookie gumshoe.

Fresh from solving a murder whose origin stretched back nearly a century (Blackman's Coffin, 2008, etc.), Iraqi war veteran Sam Blackman has a new lease on life despite having lost a leg in combat. Nakayla Robertson, the victim's sister, who roused Sam from his postwar mental doldrums and helped him unravel his last case, has become his lover. Returning to Asheville, N.C., he makes her his partner as well in a new detective agency. Elderly Ethel Barkley charms Sam with a yarn about her teacher Laura Guthrie, who worked as a secretary for F. Scott Fitzgerald in the 1930s. Mrs. Barkley wants Sam to go to her bank and retrieve a safe-deposit box that is somehow linked to a"crime" she says she committed against Fitzgerald in 1935. It seems like an easy assignment and an errand of mercy. Sam is unprepared for what he finds at the bank: The box is sealed with hardened metal bearing the imprint of a swastika. The plot thickens when somebody breaks into Sam and Nakayla's office and steals the unopened box, leaving behind the strangled corpse of friendly building security guard Amanda Whitfield. When Sam revisits Mrs. Barkley, she seems far less vague and innocent. Adding more headaches is unfinished business from Sam's hitch in Iraq, involving among other things the controversial Blackwater Company.

The warmth of Sam and Nakayla's relationship and Sam's challenged but determined heart make for a great read despite some lead-footed plotting.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

August 15, 2009
The sequel to "Blackman's Coffin" begins as Sam Blackman and partner Nakayla Robertson open their new detective agency in Asheville, NC. Their first client is an elderly woman who wants Sam to retrieve a locked box containing a manuscript she claims to have stolen from F. Scott Fitzgerald 75 years ago. At the same time, Sam receives word that the rogue Blackwater agents responsible for the loss of his leg and the death of two of his comrades in Iraq are now in the States looking for him. VERDICT A fast-paced, complex story line involving Nazis in the American South lays down the background for Blackman to solve a mystery from the past and a threat from the present. An excellent regional mystery, full of local color and historical detail.

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.