Rating: 
Summary: A good rad
Review: Former professional football player, Nick Travers loves his work as Tulane University's blues historian. When convicted murderer Ruby "The Sweet Black Angel" Walker agrees to Nick interviewing her, he can hardly wait. Four decades ago, Ruby was sent to jail for killing her lover Billy Lyons, owner of King Snake Records, in what was considered a "Frankie and Johnny" murder.In Chicago, Nick meets Ruby, who insists she is innocent. She pleads with Nick, who had recent success solving a mystery, to prove her innocence. Unable to resist the lure of Ruby, who was one step away from music legend, Nick begins to investigate the death of Lyons back in 1959. However, his inquires leads to the maniacal Stagger Lee and his assortment of lunatics wanting the case remaining closed and Nick dead. The second Nick Travers' blues mystery, LEAVIN' TRUNK BLUES, is a well written, but much darker tale than its predecessor (see CROSSROAD BLUES) is. The story line still sings with a rhythm not often seen in an amateur sleuth tale. The setting seems ghostly in an abandoned urban way and supplemented by the arctic Christmas weather that together adds up to the overall feeling of gloom. However, the light that shines through the bleak landscape is the heroic Nick, who tries to do the right thing even, as he feels like his enemy's blitz has sacked him several times. Ace Atkins scores with his second mystery that provides readers an entertaining tale that educates the audience on a part of Americana. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: A good rad
Review: Former professional football player, Nick Travers loves his work as Tulane University's blues historian. When convicted murderer Ruby "The Sweet Black Angel" Walker agrees to Nick interviewing her, he can hardly wait. Four decades ago, Ruby was sent to jail for killing her lover Billy Lyons, owner of King Snake Records, in what was considered a "Frankie and Johnny" murder. In Chicago, Nick meets Ruby, who insists she is innocent. She pleads with Nick, who had recent success solving a mystery, to prove her innocence. Unable to resist the lure of Ruby, who was one step away from music legend, Nick begins to investigate the death of Lyons back in 1959. However, his inquires leads to the maniacal Stagger Lee and his assortment of lunatics wanting the case remaining closed and Nick dead. The second Nick Travers' blues mystery, LEAVIN' TRUNK BLUES, is a well written, but much darker tale than its predecessor (see CROSSROAD BLUES) is. The story line still sings with a rhythm not often seen in an amateur sleuth tale. The setting seems ghostly in an abandoned urban way and supplemented by the arctic Christmas weather that together adds up to the overall feeling of gloom. However, the light that shines through the bleak landscape is the heroic Nick, who tries to do the right thing even, as he feels like his enemy's blitz has sacked him several times. Ace Atkins scores with his second mystery that provides readers an entertaining tale that educates the audience on a part of Americana. Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful Blues Mystery
Review: In "Crossroad Blues", Ace Atkins examined the legend and music of Robert Johnson, essentially taking a real man and making him fictional. In "Leavin' Trunk Blues", Atkins, casts blues myth Stagger Lee as a character, essentially taking a fictional man and making him real. Stagger Lee is the name of a number of blues and jazz standards about a tough Chicago man who gambles with, then murders, a fellow named Billy (usually Lyons). The stories are always the same, though a number of different artists, from Lloyd Price to Wilson Pickett, from the Grateful Dead to Nick Cave, have taken ownership of the song by switching around events, tempos, names, details. But the centerpiece is still the evil, dangerous, magnetic Stagger Lee. In Ace Atkins' version, Stagger Lee is all the evil in Chicago's south side rolled into a single man, and Billy Lyons was the manager of a female blues artist, Ruby Walker, known as "the Sweet Black Angel". When Billy turned up dead, the Black Angel was accused of his murder and went to prison for life. Enter Nick Travers, blues historian, amateur detective and old softy. When Ruby asks Nick to help her find out who killed Billy and get her out of jail, Nick jumps right in, meeting famous blues musicians, beautiful, knife-wielding assassins and Stagger Lee himself, taking time along the way to take a dig at that little blond kid who thinks he plays the blues but isn't old enough to know what they are. Ace Atkins writes well. He's toned down a lot of the purple prose that marred "Crossroad Blues" and here concentrates on good, solid description and storytelling. His evocation of the blues, the life, the players, are all spot on and he makes you feel the desperation in the hearts of the people who migrated to Chicago in order to find a better life, only to find the projects and poverty. He makes you want to listen to every name that he drops. When he's good, he's very, very good. But his hold on good is a little spotty. Atkins depends too heavily on internal monologue, too often writing in sentence fragments that he seems thinks make sense and allow the reader into the mind of the character. They don't. Instead, they seem like the author was too lazy to finish his sentences and the editor was too lazy to correct him. The two female assassins, who could have been the most interesting characters, are written as comedy relief, with Annie carrying on a love affair with her butcher knife "Willie" and fantasizing about moving to Riverdale, home of Archie & pals. Petie Wheatstraw, a blues hanger-on is also written a little on the cartoon-ey side. And I find it hard, even when suspending disbelief, to accept that the police can't find and catch the "biggest black man [Nick] had ever seen", Stagger Lee, especially when he commits murders in broad daylight and everyone knows where he lives. Large parts of this book could not have happened if the laws of logic had not been repealed. That said, Nick himself is a fine character, written with the right touch of vulnerability and strength, music geek knowledge and girl stupidity. His amour, Kate, is brash and smart, with just the right amount of softness. And Dirty Jimmy is one of the most fun characters I've come across in a while. Atkins' mysteries won't win any awards for originality and they won't knock your socks off as literature. But they are a wonderful way to pass some hours and learn about old blues while being entertained.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful Blues Mystery
Review: In "Crossroad Blues", Ace Atkins examined the legend and music of Robert Johnson, essentially taking a real man and making him fictional. In "Leavin' Trunk Blues", Atkins, casts blues myth Stagger Lee as a character, essentially taking a fictional man and making him real. Stagger Lee is the name of a number of blues and jazz standards about a tough Chicago man who gambles with, then murders, a fellow named Billy (usually Lyons). The stories are always the same, though a number of different artists, from Lloyd Price to Wilson Pickett, from the Grateful Dead to Nick Cave, have taken ownership of the song by switching around events, tempos, names, details. But the centerpiece is still the evil, dangerous, magnetic Stagger Lee. In Ace Atkins' version, Stagger Lee is all the evil in Chicago's south side rolled into a single man, and Billy Lyons was the manager of a female blues artist, Ruby Walker, known as "the Sweet Black Angel". When Billy turned up dead, the Black Angel was accused of his murder and went to prison for life. Enter Nick Travers, blues historian, amateur detective and old softy. When Ruby asks Nick to help her find out who killed Billy and get her out of jail, Nick jumps right in, meeting famous blues musicians, beautiful, knife-wielding assassins and Stagger Lee himself, taking time along the way to take a dig at that little blond kid who thinks he plays the blues but isn't old enough to know what they are. Ace Atkins writes well. He's toned down a lot of the purple prose that marred "Crossroad Blues" and here concentrates on good, solid description and storytelling. His evocation of the blues, the life, the players, are all spot on and he makes you feel the desperation in the hearts of the people who migrated to Chicago in order to find a better life, only to find the projects and poverty. He makes you want to listen to every name that he drops. When he's good, he's very, very good. But his hold on good is a little spotty. Atkins depends too heavily on internal monologue, too often writing in sentence fragments that he seems thinks make sense and allow the reader into the mind of the character. They don't. Instead, they seem like the author was too lazy to finish his sentences and the editor was too lazy to correct him. The two female assassins, who could have been the most interesting characters, are written as comedy relief, with Annie carrying on a love affair with her butcher knife "Willie" and fantasizing about moving to Riverdale, home of Archie & pals. Petie Wheatstraw, a blues hanger-on is also written a little on the cartoon-ey side. And I find it hard, even when suspending disbelief, to accept that the police can't find and catch the "biggest black man [Nick] had ever seen", Stagger Lee, especially when he commits murders in broad daylight and everyone knows where he lives. Large parts of this book could not have happened if the laws of logic had not been repealed. That said, Nick himself is a fine character, written with the right touch of vulnerability and strength, music geek knowledge and girl stupidity. His amour, Kate, is brash and smart, with just the right amount of softness. And Dirty Jimmy is one of the most fun characters I've come across in a while. Atkins' mysteries won't win any awards for originality and they won't knock your socks off as literature. But they are a wonderful way to pass some hours and learn about old blues while being entertained.
Rating: 
Summary: Finding the Blues
Review: In his job as Professor of Blues History, Nick Travers has learned enough to suspect that something is wrong with Blues legend Ruby Walker's conviction for murdering her lover. When Ruby invites him to visit her in prison, he grabs the chance. When she tells him she didn't commit the 50 year old murder, he vows to investigate. The novel is set in the dark underside of Chicago. Where once Chicago was the city of hope for sharecroppers fleeing the South, now that hope has vanished. Is Stagger Lee really an urban legend, or did one man have so much to do with Black Chicago's self-destruction? If he does exist, how does he relate to Ruby. Although a bunch of old Blues artists living in the memories of their accomplishments fifty years ago hardly sounds dangerous, Travers finds himself threatened. The novel reeks of the blues--both in its characters and in its themes. The slums of Chicago, the ruins of old Blues clubs, and the ruins of old Blues artists all form part of the tapestry in Atkin's novel. Although there are a few light moments, even these serve to reinforce the message of the blues.
Rating:
Summary: Travers Meets Stagger Lee
Review: LEAVIN' TRUNK BLUES is Ace Atkins' second book in his Nick Travers series following on from CROSSROAD BLUES. Once again we are immersed in blues music lore, legend and attitude as we are taken to nightclubs, are fed lines from blues numbers and left to appreciate the depth of emotion that goes into the blues. At the same time, there are some pretty tense and violent moments as Travers investigates an old murder.
Nick Travers is a blues historian living in New Orleans who works at Tulane University while compiling the research necessary to write his biography of Eddie Jones, better known as Guitar Slim. As part of his all-encompassing interest in the blues he has been sending letters to Ruby Walker, a former blues singer, requesting an interview with her. Ruby is currently in prison and has so far served a 40 year sentence for the murder of her lover and manager, Billy Lyons. She has agreed to speak to Nick and this prompts him to leave New Orleans and head to Chicago. After talking to Ruby and later, when interviewing more old-time blues players around Chicago, Nick gets the impression that there is a strong possibility that she is innocent and has spent the last 40 years paying for a crime she didn't commit.
Nick begins tracking down the old blues artists around Chicago in a bid to find out what they remembered about the night Billy Lyons died. His presence and his line of questioning don't go unnoticed however and it's not long before Stagger Lee gets to hear of him. Stagger Lee is the ruler of Chicago's South Side projects, ruling through terror and an abundance of crack. He is ably assisted by a couple of prostitutes, Annie and Fannie, who are as deadly as they are alluring, a fact that is demonstrated to us a number of times. When Stagger Lee decides he wants Travers stopped, it's these two he sends to do the dirty work.
The story turns into a tense hunter/stalker scenario, with Travers playing the part of both the hunter and the hunted. While he hunts for information, contacting famous musicians and forgotten recording artists, he is unknowingly being stalked by a couple of killers with an impressive track record. Backing them up is the frighteningly imposing figure of Stagger Lee who, like his namesake of legend, is also a man to be feared.
I found that the actual identity of the murderer really becomes of secondary importance as the story progresses, particularly because it is made perfectly obvious who it is so very early on. Instead, it's the tension built into Travers' search that really dragged me in. The reason behind why Billy Lyons was killed dominates our attention too and is the source of a number of surprises along the way.
There are a lot of characters used throughout the book and they ranged from the crazy, off-beat Annie and Fannie who never really progressed beyond the role of killers who wanted to escape the life they led, to the wonderfully captured irreverence of Dirty Jimmy. Jimmy had the demeanor one would expect of an ex-musician who has already seen it all and the harp-blowing little man livened up every scene in which he was included. As for Nick Travers, he is a fine character with the tough background as an ex-NFL footballer with the New Orleans Saints offset by the music geek enthusiasm he displays when he meets the odd blues legend. He comes with just the right mix of strength and vulnerability.
LEAVIN' TRUNK BLUES is a dark, moody story that showcases Chicago's rich history of blues music while providing an enthralling thriller. With the lure of more Nick Travers mysteries to come, I'm sure to be diving into the blues scene courtesy of Ace Atkins in the future.
Rating:
Summary: Sweet Home Chicago!
Review: Oh, baby don't you want to go
Back to the land of California, to my sweet home Chicago It seemed like everyone in the Mississippi delta country could hear that sweet song that Robert Johnson sang calling them north to Chicago. It fell on there ears like a sweet lullaby, a promise of a better life to the north. Young Ruby Walker was no exception. As a teenager she haunted the roadhouses and blues joints hoping that one day she could sing the blues in the sweet home up north "Chicago." Well, Ruby did make it north and for a while it was a good and sweet home. Ruby hit the big time and became known for her song Leavin' Trunk Blues. But it seemed predestined that Ruby was to live a life of the blues. One morning she woke up soaked in the blood of her manager and lover, Billy Lyons and before she knew it she was serving life in the big house for his murder. That was in 1959 and as the years pass slowly by, Ruby steadfastly maintained that she is innocent. She begins to write to professor and blues historian Nick Travers. Nick agrees to research the circumstances surrounding the murder, because he hopes to do research on Ruby, her life and the people she knew at the time. Nick feels that historians are missing the opportunity to record living history by forgetting the people who participated in the great migration and focusing on the 1930's and the delta. Ace Atkins has created a tasty mystery with Leavin' Trunk Blues, the second of his Nick Travers series. It is nicely atmospheric taking place in Chicago with Nick visiting blues clubs as well as Chicago's seedy underbelly to dig up information. Fast paced with action and adventure to spare, it draws the reader quickly into Nicks world. Nick is an unlikely sleuth. A former football player who fell in love with the blues and became a blues historian from Tulane University. We find out that he can get down and dirty with the best of them and there are times in Leavin' Trunk Blues that he has to. For a fan of mysteries or a fan of the blues, Leavin' Trunk Blues is a great read. If you are both it is even better.
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