It's February 1968, and tense race relations in Memphis are beginning to build into real conflict. The sanitation workers' strike has been going on for almost three weeks, and marches are beginning to turn into riots. African-American P.I. Smokey Dalton is hired by Laura Hathaway, a young white woman from up north, to look into her mother's reasons for remembering Smokey generously in her will. Smokey reluctantly takes the case, as much to satisfy his own curiosity about these people he never knew as because he needs the work. What he uncovers is a thirty-year-old secret so powerful it will shatter both their lives. Furthermore, this turning point couldn't come at a worse time for Smokey. As February turns to March, then April, Smokey must watch his city crumble around him and deals with the approaching visit of his childhood friend, now estranged from him, Martin Luther King, Jr. - a visit that turns out to be the very destiny of both men, and the city itself. This wonderful novel launches a unique and atmospheric series, introducing an appealing character in Smokey Dalton and an equally compelling time period in our history. It's Memphis, Tennessee, 1968, and PI (or, in his words, odd-jobs man) Smokey Dalton has had problems. The oldest dates back to 1939, when 10-year-old Smokey hid in a closet while a mob abducted, tortured, and lynched his parents. Presently, the Memphis sanitation workers' strike is dragging on, protests are fast becoming riots, and talk of an appearance by Martin Luther King Jr., Smokey's boyhood friend, is fanning both hopes and fears. His latest problem, however, is Laura Hathaway, a young, rich, white woman who's just delivered the news that Smokey's a beneficiary in her mother's will, and she'd like to know why. "I'm obligated to make sure you get your cash." Her eyes clouded for a moment. It was beginning to look like disposing of Momma's assets had become a tricky and uncomfortable proposition. "You know," I said, "sometimes people should be allowed their secrets." "Do you think so, Mr. Dalton?" she asked, and this time there was no condescension in her voice. "Do you really think so? A man like you who takes odd jobs? Do you allow people their secrets, or do you just want to hang onto yours?" Then she let herself out, closing the wooden door gently behind her. Her shadow moved across the frosted glass, and she was gone. But not for long, because Smokey and Laura soon join forces to find the answers, uncover the secrets, and to weather together--and separately--one of the darkest times in recent American history. With A Dangerous Road , Kris Nelscott (also known as Kristine Kathryn Rusch, the award-winning and prolific science fiction author) delivers an intricately plotted, historically resonant, first-person narrative that, while not hard-boiled, echoes faintly nonetheless of Chandler and Hammett. A Smokey Dalton series? 'Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished. --Michael Hudson In a manner reminiscent of Walter Moseley, Nelscott features a black private detective in 1968 Memphis. Protagonist Smokey Dalton investigates a wealthy white man for the man's daughter and tries to figure out why he mentioned Smokey in his will. Despite a childhood friendship with Martin Luther King Jr., loner Smokey avoids the swirl of civil rights violence going on around him. His investigation, his attraction to his white client, and his own violent past, however, thrust him into the dangerous center of things. Plainspoken, tell-it-like-it-is narration, a hard-nosed detective, and an eventful era mark this new series beginning. Recommended. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. It's 1968, and racial tensions in Memphis are nearing a breaking point. Smokey Dalton, an African American private investigator, likes to keep the world at arm's length, but when you investigate yourself, it's hard to maintain any sort of distance. His client is a rich white woman from Chicago who wants to know why her mother left $10,000 to a black man in Memphis. Smokey wants to know, too, since he was the beneficiary of the mysterious gift. With the case taking Smokey into some very dark corners of his past, the present makes its own demands: Martin Luther King Jr., a childhood friend of Smokey's, is coming to Memphis, and Smokey is hired to arrange local security. Nelscott effectively mixes history and fiction in this atmospheric first novel. His conspiracy theory on the King assassination works both as credible speculation and as narrative tool. Smokey Dalton has an obvious antecedent in Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins, but he can stand on his own just fine. This has the makings of an outstanding series. Bill Ott Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved The night after the 1939 premiere of Gone with the Wind, seven-year-old Billy and his boyhood friend Martin, under the direction of Martin's father, Dr. King, sang out as pickaninnies to entertain Atlanta's lily-white Junior