The Righteous Cut

July 15, 2002
In his fifth literate, intelligent, if overly busy WWII-era noir to feature Creole nightclub owner and part-time dick Wesley Farrell (after 2001's Pale Shadow), Skinner has included enough characters to stage Aida
and enough plot twists to give the conscientious reader a migraine trying to keep track of the cast. When shady New Orleans councilman Whit Richards receives a phone call from a man who addresses him as "Rico," an old nickname he'd rather forget, he knows he's in trouble. Richards's enemies have a foolproof scheme to get even for the truly rotten things he's done to them, though it's no surprise when the bad guys' best-laid plans backfire. When Richards won't cooperate with the police after his teenage daughter is kidnapped in broad daylight from her Catholic school, his wife, an old flame of Farrell's, asks the Creole to find the girl. A young African-American nebbish, the only reliable witness to the kidnapping, becomes the quarry of a fearsome hired gun, Easter Coupé, easily the best character in the book. Eventually, like Joshua before Jericho, Farrell brings the walls down on them all. Skinner's 1940s New Orleans underworld is effectively murky, while his period details and topical references are, as usual, pitch perfect. Established fans should be pleased, but others may find that there's not enough depth or development to care about the fates of any of the major players. (Aug. 15)FYI:Skinner is also the author of
Two Guns from Harlem: The Detective Fiction of Chester Himes (1989) and other scholarly works in the mystery genre.

August 12, 2002
Hard-nosed New Orleans nightclub owner/sleuth Wesley Farrell (Skin Deep, Blood Red) looks into the kidnapping of a corrupt councilman's daughter. It is 1941, the councilman has called off police, and a killer is looking for the only witness to the crime. Good writing.

Copyright 2002 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2002
It's December 1941, and Creole nightclub owner Wesley Farrell is back in New Orleans after retreating to Havana, where he hoped to resolve a laundry list of dilemmas, including the implications, personal and otherwise, of his passing for white. Matters are only complicated further when a former lover, now the wife of notoriously corrupt New Orleans politician Whit Richards, shows up on Farrell's doorstop, asking for help in finding her kidnapped daughter. As Farrell questions the numerous gangsters whom Richards has conned, black cop Israel Daggett searches for the lone witness to the kidnapping. Skinner, a librarian and scholar, has used historical New Orleans to good advantage throughout this series, but his skills at plot construction and character building have grown dramatically through five episodes. Farrell, impeccably cool but awash in an ongoing identity crisis, has always been a compelling character, but the villains and supporting players are noticeably more complex now. This has become a first-class series, every bit as deserving of the same attention as Walter Mosley's similar but more celebrated Easy Rawlins novels.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)