Printer's Devil Court

September 1, 2014
The summer of 1969, a time of change, activism, and turmoil in the U.S., gets a dense, uninspired look in this standalone from Lawton, best known for his Inspector Troy series (Black Out, etc.). Turner Raines has failed at just about everything, except as a PI specializing in tracking young men who have fled to Canada to avoid the draft. He doesn’t bring them back, but instead bears messages from their families. While Turner is on one of these trips, someone murders his best friend, journalist Mel Kissing, in the detective’s New York City office with an ice pick. Believing Mel’s murder is linked to a story about Vietnam he was working on for the Village Voice, Turner begins an investigation that takes him across the country, to visit soldiers, civil rights activists, and his own fractured Texas family. Events such as the Vietnam War, the moon landing, and Woodstock come across as items to be crossed off a checklist rather than plot points. Agent: Clare Alexander, Aitken Alexander Associates (U.K.).