By Bill Fitzhugh
- Pub Date: 2005
- Where I bought this book: Roebling Books & Coffee, Covington, Ky.
- Why I bought this book: I love old Dylan tunes
*****
* A kinda shady private investigator who performs the job as a sideline to his first love, which is in a dying profession that never was a lucrative life.
* A drugged out, wild-eyed killer who isn't very bright.
* A rich, old, antebellum family that once ruled the roost in its small town, but since has fallen on hard times. If some of them are racist, all the better.
* A slightly pathetic, somewhat mangy, but still lovable pet.
* The plot must be convoluted and involve music -- particularly traditional, down-home music.
* It must -- must. mind you -- have a racially-motivated injustice from long ago that is ripe to be avenged.
* It should have guns. Lots of guns. And, if possible, a shootout.
This sharp and sometimes comic mystery novel contains all of that, and more. Much, much more.
In short, the plot involves a 50-year-old murder, some lost tapes of a supposed blues recording from long ago, and a disc jockey-private investigator trying to make sense of it all. Rick Shannon, a radio DJ in the mode of Harry Chapin's W*O*L*D, has landed back in Vicksburg, Miss., at classic rock station WVBR-FM. To supplement his income, he opens Rockin' Vestigations to find missing person and skulk around cheating spouses.
That's how he gets involved in a case that includes several murders, lots of history and music, and the LeFleur family. The action takes him around the sweltering Delta of Mississippi, and Fitzhugh, Mississippi born-and-bred, describes its people and places well.
The writing is good and solid, moving the story along with ease. That story is complicated, but Shannon's steady, structured investigation, following one clue to the next one, pieces it together well.
The result is a fun and easy read that could be used to train real investigators.
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