Drink the Tea: A Mystery (Willis Gidney Mysteries, 1) - Hardcover

Kaufman, Thomas

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 031260730X ISBN 13: 9780312607302

Publisher: Minotaur Books, 2010

Synopsis

Thomas Kaufman is a winner of the PWA Best First Private Eye Novel Competition. His debut novel, Drink the Tea, which boasts an original PI and an engaging cast of characters, adds a fresh perspective to the genre.

Willis Gidney is a born liar and rip-off artist, an expert at the scam. Growing up without parents or a home, by age twelve he is a successful young man, running his own small empire, until he meets Shadrack Davies. That's Captain Shadrack Davies, of the D.C. Police. Davies wants to reform Gidney and becomes his foster father. Though he tries not to, Gidney learns a small amount of ethics from Shad---just enough to bother a kid from the streets for the rest of his life.

Now Gidney is a PI, walking those same streets. So it's no surprise that when his closest friend, jazz saxophonist Steps Jackson, asks Gidney to find his missing daughter, Gidney is compelled to say yes---even though she's been missing for twenty-five years. He finds a woman who may be the girl's mother--and within hours she turns up dead. The police accuse Gidney of the murder and throw him in jail.

Maybe Gidney should quit while he's behind. But when his investigation puts him up against a ruthless multinational corporation, a two-faced congressman, and a young woman desperate to conceal her past, Gidney has no time left for second thoughts. In fact, he may have no time left at all.

About this title

About the Author

Thomas Kaufman is an award-winning motion picture director and cameraman. He has twice won the Gordon Parks Award for Cinematography, and an Emmy for his documentary about deaf children, See What I'm Saying. His books include the novel Drink the Tea, a winner of the PWA Best First Private Eye Novel Competition. He lives with his wife and two children in Maryland.

Reviews

Starred Review. Kaufman, the winner of the PWA Best First Private Eye Novel Competition, introduces an unusual PI, a former foster child, in his impressive debut. Too often in mystery fiction a character's difficult upbringing is tacked on, but Willis Gidney bears emotional scars from being abandoned that are both convincing and relevant to the story line. Jazz great Steps Jackson, a friend of the D.C. gumshoe, hires Gidney to locate his long-lost daughter. Gidney, who normally serves subpoenas, attracts the interest of a creepy private security firm and an ambitious right-wing politician. After a lead takes him to Colette Andrews, the wife of the former Virginia state attorney general, Colette turns up shot to death, and the police suspect Gidney of having pulled the trigger. While one coincidental development will raise eyebrows, Kaufman, a director and cameraman who twice won the Gordon Parks Award for cinematography, pulls off a taut, compelling tale of violence and corruption. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

As a child, Willis Gidney was homeless on the streets of Washington, D.C. Not even knowing his own name, he entered the D.C. juvenile justice system named for the two beat cops who collared him. Juvie made him tough and street-smart. Now 35, he’s a struggling PI. A good friend asks Gidney to find a daughter who has been missing for 25 years. Dead bodies begin to pile up immediately, and Gidney is up to his neck in crooked congressmen, rapacious corporations, hired guns, cynical cops, and devious women. Kaufman, an award-winning cinematographer, has created a wonderful new series hero, a smart, tough, and cocky knight errant scarred by his past but resilient and resourceful. Gidney’s backstory almost takes precedence over the case, but Kaufman artfully weaves them together. His D.C., from the corridors of Capitol Hill to the horrors of juvenile-detention centers, is knowing and vividly evoked. His dialogue is clever and often quirky, and he surrounds Gidney with a host of strong characters. Fans of PI novels will love this one. --Thomas Gaughan

Edition details

• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 031260730X
• ISBN 13: 9780312607302
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304