Smoke-Filled Rooms (A Smokey Dalton Mystery) - Softcover

Nelscott, Kris

4.25

222 ratings by Goodreads

9780312982904: Smoke-Filled Rooms (A Smokey Dalton Mystery)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312982909 ISBN 13: 9780312982904

Publisher: St. Martin's Press, 2002

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It's a long hot summer in 1968. After escaping Memphis with Jimmy, a ten-year-old boy who witnessed the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., P.I. Smokey Dalton hopes to start a new life in Chicago. Their new beginning is shattered by the event leading up to the Democratic National Convention, where violence and paranoia have replaced political protest. Smokey does all he can to protect Jimmy from the police and his nagging fear that a rogue FBI agent is following them. But when a neighborhood boy disappears, and the body of another is found tortured on his doorstep, Smokey knows that he cannot run any longer. Only by dividing headlong into the underside of the 1960s can he and Jimmy hope to stay alive...

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Review:

Smokey Dalton is a man on the run, and he's got something to hide. In her second Dalton novel, author Kris Nelscott takes these invitations to clich� and instead crafts a refreshingly straightforward thriller that moves adroitly through the sweltering heat and simmering racial tension of the summer of 1968, when the Democratic National Convention came to Chicago.

In A Dangerous Road, PI Smokey became the unwitting protector of a 10-year-old boy who had witnessed Martin Luther King's murder--and who knows that James Earl Ray was the fall guy for a government-mandated assassination. Now, several months later, Smokey and Jimmy have taken refuge with friends in Chicago. Just as he's letting go of the reflex to look over his shoulder, Smokey hears that neighbors have seen someone watching him. But when he tries to find out who the stranger is, he gets sidetracked by a plea to find a missing 14-year-old boy who has disappeared without a trace. When the body of another neighborhood child appears on Smokey's doorstep, bearing the traces of torture administered by a pro, the investigator knows that the shadows of Memphis have lengthened and darkened--and that they may stretch all the way back to his own military past. To save Jimmy from their pursuers, Smokey will have to swallow both personal and professional pride, forming uneasy alliances with Laura, an ex-almost-lover, and with the Chicago police.

Nelscott is interested in delineating the ordinary rather than the extraordinary: the novel's plot is well-articulated and suspenseful, but even more rewarding are its glimpses into the social constraints and preconceptions that surround Smokey (whose rusted Impala and skin color combine to form "a neon sign advertising trouble"). This is a solid follow-up effort that should have fans looking forward to a third appearance. --Kelly Flynn

About the Author:

KRIS NELSCOTT lives and writes on the Oregon coast.

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