Saturday, April 5, 2008

Blackman’s Coffin-Mark De Castrique

Blackman’s Coffin
Mark De Castrique
Poisoned Pen, Jun 2008, $24.95
ISBN: 9781590585177

Former US Army Criminal Investigation Detachment Chief Warrant officer Sam Blackman lost his leg in Iraq. However that is not what has outraged him; instead his medical treatment in the states has been shabby and he has said no more. More to keep him out of the DC limelight, the VA transfer Sam to the Veteran’s Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina.

At the VA Sam meets fellow amputee former marine Tikima Robertson who offers the despondent ex-soldier an opportunity to use his CID skills if he can stop the self-pity crap. However, before he can respond, someone murders Tikima; her body left floating in a nearby river. Tikima’s sister, Nakayla asks Sam to find her sibling’s killer. She gives him a 1919 journal that Tikima found that contains the musing of twelve-year-old white child Henderson Youngblood whose father was a funeral director; his dad Travis was assisting Negro Elijah Robertson transport a corpse for burial in a family plot in Georgia. In 2008 Elijah’s body was found in the French Broad River near the same place where his great-great granddaughter Tikima’s corpse was found.

The1919 diary entries that appear throughout the super story line seem a bit mature for a preadolescent even for a child whose dad works with death and grief, but still well written in terms of an exciting look at Asheville in the early twentieth century. The two murder mysteries are fun to follow with both tied to post war people and racially terse overtones. Throw in some Thomas Wolfe to the mix as well as a bitter angry vet as the lead and whodunit fans will enjoy Sam’s efforts to solve a modern day and nine decade old murders.

Harriet Klausner

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

酒店經紀,酒店小姐,酒店公關,酒店打工,酒店上班,禮服店,便服店,假日打工,酒店兼差,酒店兼職,暑假打工,寒假打工,酒店經紀爆米花,酒店打工爆米花,酒店兼差爆米花,酒店兼職爆米花,酒店上班爆米花,酒店工作爆米花,酒店小姐爆米花,禮服店爆米花,假日打工爆米花,酒店經紀PRETTY GIRL,酒店上班PRETTY GIRL,酒店兼差PRETTY GIRL,酒店工作PRETTY GIRL,酒店打工PRETTY GIRL


酒店
童裝批發
童裝批發
童裝
童裝
酒店喝酒
暑假打工
酒店
酒店經紀人
酒店小姐
酒店兼職
酒店上班
酒店兼差
禮服店
酒店上班
酒店打工
酒店小姐
酒店經紀
假日打工
台北酒店經紀
酒店應酬
粉味
茵悅
酒店經紀
酒店經紀