Room to Swing
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
"This 1958 Edgar Award winner for best novel from Lacy (1911–1968) masterfully combines a classic genre trope with a powerful depiction of the impact of racism in 1950s America."— Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
"Though private investigators were the most popular figures in crime writing, especially in the work of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Ellery Queen, and Rex Stout, no one had created a Black hard-boiled private eye in a noir setting until Ed Lacy’s Room to Swing."—Leslie Klinger, from Introduction
College-educated and decorated war-veteran Toussaint Moore, finds that his employment options are limited as a Black man in 1950s America. With little choice, he seeks out a living as a private eye, serving Black clients in his hometown of Harlem. When hired by the television producers of a reality show called "You—Detective!" Touie must keep tabs on the whereabouts of an accused child molester.
While waiting for the episode to air, Touie finds the man murdered and becomes the prime suspect in the investigation. Forced to flee, he goes to a small Ohio town where the deceased was wanted for his crime.
"Lacy asks whether a Black man (in the late fifties) can go everywhere he needs to, with the freedom his job requires, in order to conduct the investigation necessary to crack a case.”—Criminal Element
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This 1958 Edgar Award winner for best novel from Lacy (1911–1968) masterfully combines a classic genre trope with a powerful depiction of the impact of racism in 1950s America. Black PI Touissant Moore arrives in Bingston, Ohio, where his skin color automatically evokes hostility from white people. He secures a room in the Black enclave, but the daughter of his hosts sees through his story that he's a traveling jazz musician. Moore admits that he's looking for information about a former resident, Robert Thomas, who was wanted by the Ohio police for the rape and assault of a teen six years earlier and was recently murdered in New York City, where Thomas was living under an alias. Moore, who's been hired by a TV show that rewards viewers for nabbing criminals profiled on the program, thinks the killer may have come from Bingston. Moore wants to make sure that Thomas stayed in the area long enough to be seen by a viewer, but he ends up framed for Thomas's murder. The pacing, sharp-edged prose, and characterizations are all top-notch. With any luck, this assured and memorable crime novel will lead to further reissues of Lacy's work.
