Crossroad Blues (Nick Travers) - Softcover

Atkins, Ace

3.6

1,036 ratings by Goodreads

9781935415039: Crossroad Blues (Nick Travers)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1935415034 ISBN 13: 9781935415039

Publisher: Busted Flush Pr, 2010

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“In Atkins’ hands, the characters are as substantial as a down home breakfast of biscuits and ham with red-eye gravy.”—Entertainment Weekly

“Crossroad Blues is a riot of Johnson lore, driven by the sort of stories generations of blues researchers would have sacrificed their children and parents to nail down.”—Greil Marcus, Interview magazine

“One of the best crime writers at work today.”—Michael Connelly

This is the tenth anniversary edition, featuring bonus material from the author and a never-before-published Nick Travers story.

Sixty years after 1930s bluesman Robert Johnson—who, as legend has it, sold his soul to the devil at a Mississippi crossroads—was murdered after a gig at a Greenwood, Mississippi, juke joint, a college professor following rumors of nine unknown Johnson recordings goes missing in the Delta. Ex–New Orleans Saint-turned-Tulane University blues historian Nick Travers is sent to find him. Clues point to everyone from an eccentric albino named Cracker to a seventeen-year-old hitman who believes he is the second coming of Elvis Presley.

A modern, Southern reinvention of The Maltese Falcon, Crossroad Blues impressed noir fans with its nod to the masters Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett and intrigued blues lovers with its meticulous attention to detail. But most of all, with richly drawn characters, a tight plot, and snappy dialogue, Crossroad Blues is a timeless story told well.

A former Pulitzer Prize–nominated journalist, Ace Atkins is the best-selling author of seven novels, including Devil’s Garden (Putnam, April 2009).

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Review:

Florida journalist and former college football player Ace Atkins takes full advantage of the legendary blues guitarist Robert Johnson's life, music, and strange death in his first mystery. And even though it bears the weight of two of the genre's most overused icons--a New Orleans setting and an ex-sports star as hero--Crossroad Blues is fresh and imaginative enough in all its other aspects to inspire hope for an ongoing series.

Yes, Nick Travers did play for the New Orleans Saints, but it wasn't an injury that turned him into a part-time detective and full-time expert on the blues. "Nick had been thrown out of the NFL for kicking his coach's ass during a Monday Night Football game," Atkins tell us. Now he teaches the occasional blues history class at Tulane, works on his biography of Guitar Slim, and plays his harmonica at JoJo's Blues Bar--a place so lovingly described that it should be real even if it isn't. When a Tulane colleague disappears on a quest for some hitherto unknown Johnson recordings in the Mississippi Delta town of Greenwood, Travers goes to look for him--and walks into a murderous mess of colorful sociopaths, including a deadly teenage Elvis lookalike and a slimy record producer who not only orchestrates violent crimes but also dares to use the blues as a marketing ploy for a chain of nightclubs. More, please. --Dick Adler

From the Publisher:

Praise for CROSSROAD BLUES:

"CROSSROAD BLUES sings. It proves that big guys can write, and that Ace Atkins can write better than most." --Robert B. Parker, author of SUDDEN MISCHIEF and SMALL VICES

"CROSSROAD BLUES is like a classic song--the right feeling, the right note, at the right time." --B.B. King, Blues Legend and author of BLUES ALL AROUND ME

"Ace Atkins comes roaring out of the starting blocks with a fast, funny, suspenseful first novel that has it all--wild characters, wonderful locale, great writing, and a tough and revealing look at the legacy of one of the great blues musicians of all time. On every page of this fine novel is another gem--an unforgettable character, a dandy passage of dialogue, another startling plot twist. If you're smart, you'll buy three copies of this book--one to read, one for a friend, and one to store away in a plastic bag. Ace Atkins is a writer with a brilliant future." --James W. Hall, author of UNDER COVER OF DAYLIGHT, RED SKY, and BODY LANGUAGE

"Nick Travers is the best mystery character I've ever met. He's tough, he's cool, and he's funny as hell. When you finish this book, I guarantee you'll be like me: you'll want more. Ace Atkins's writing is so palpable that the big boys of mystery like Leonard, Burke, Ellroy, and Hall are going to have to make some room at the top." --Tim Green, author of THE DARK SIDE OF THE GAME and THE RED ZONE

"Ace Atkins skillfully interweaves two mysteries: the case that sends Nick Travers to the Delta and the inexplicable staying power of a music made long ago by men already forgotten in their own day." --Francis Davis, author of THE HISTORY OF BLUES and BEBOP AND NOTHINGNESS

"Ace Atkins takes us to the dark side of the American moon in CROSSROAD BLUES, a novel set in the dusky midnight world of street freaks, hustlers, roadhouses, and the bubbling cauldron of southern-fried intrigue. You'll love Jesse Garon, a nasty little Elvis clone who'll leave you 'all shook up' before the end of the book." --W.L. Ripley, author of STORM FRONT and ELECTRIC COUNTRY ROULETTE

"If Raymond Chandler came from the South, his name would be Ace Atkins." --Kinky Friedman, author of BLAST FROM THE PAST and ELVIS, JESUS AND COCA-COLA

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