Smoke-Filled Rooms: A Smokey Dalton Novel
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4.5 • 23 Ratings
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
"This is mystery fiction at its highest, most gripping level." Chicago Tribune
On the run after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., Private Investigator Smokey Dalton has settled under an assumed name in Chicago. But history won't leave him alone. His job in security at the Chicago Hilton places him in the center of the protests at the 1968 Democratic Convention. Worse, a killer works his South Side neighborhood.
Smokey can't ignore the crimes, any more than he can ignore the tension building in the city that hot August. He must take action, before he loses everything.
Chosen as one of the top ten mystery novels of the year by both Deadly Pleasures and Booklist, Smoke-Filled Rooms fulfills the promise of the award-winning A Dangerous Road, and makes Smokey Dalton into one of the mystery field's most memorable detectives.
Read the whole gripping series:
A Dangerous Road, Book 1
Smoke-Filled Rooms, Book 2
Thin Walls, Book 3
Stone Cribs, Book 4
War at Home, Book 5
Days of Rage, Book 6
Street Justice, Book 7
"A blistering rendition of the'60s racial wars marks this series as a standout as early as its second entry. You don't need to be a fan of private-eye novels to admire Smokey: You just need a conscience." Kirkus Reviews starred review
"Nelscott does a superb job of using a familiar historical moment to dramatize an intimate human drama, as Smokey and Jimmy struggle to avoid becoming anonymous casualties lost behind the headlines. This series has all the passion and precision of Walter Mosley's early Easy Rawlins novels, but it is not derivative. In fact, Smokey just may be a more compelling character than the celebrated Easy." Booklist starred review
Kris Nelscott is an open pen name used by New York Times bestselling author Kristine Kathryn Rusch.
The first Smokey Dalton novel, A Dangerous Road, won the Herodotus Award for Best Historical Mystery and was short-listed for the Edgar Award for Best Novel; the second, Smoke-Filled Rooms, was a PNBA Book Award finalist; and the third, Thin Walls, was one of the Chicago Tribune's best mysteries of the year. Kirkus chose Days of Rage as one of the top ten mysteries of the year and it was also nominated for a Shamus award for The Best Private Eye Hardcover Novel of the Year.
Entertainment Weekly says her equals are Walter Mosley and Raymond Chandler. Booklist calls the Smokey Dalton books "a high-class crime series" and Salon says "Kris Nelscott can lay claim to the strongest series of detective novels now being written by an American author."
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The second novel about black PI Smokey Dalton safely works formula situations the sensitive detective, the child-in-peril against the backdrop of rioting during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. In the first book in the series, A Dangerous Road(2000), a 10-year-old became the only witness to the real killer at the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., with Smokey his sole protector. Now, months later, they're in hiding, though Smokey's idea of concealment consists of working security at the high-profile Conrad Hilton Hotel, as well as taking on a missing-child case in their neighborhood when he knows a shadowy figure is watching his every move. Nelscott, the penname adopted by science fiction writer Kristine Kathryn Rusch for these mysteries, has selected a powerful historical era, but almost wastes it by indulging in genre clich s. She even pulls in the archenemy from the past and the inevitable tagline, "This had become personal." Evident haste leads to occasional funny moments, such as the doofus lines meant to invoke suspense when Smokey goes to rent an apartment: "The faint odors of stale sweat and perfume filled the hallway. Someone had been here before us." The building is inhabited, Smokey. Fans of modern PI novels may enjoy this one, but it makes a very poor substitute for authentic black crime writing from that turbulent era, much of which is available in reprint.
Customer Reviews
Smoke filled room
Outstanding! Another great Story interwoven through troubled times of 1968. Action, excellent characters and suspense on every page