A Dangerous Road (A Smokey Dalton Novel)

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Summary: Ditto
Review: (...)I just want to urge you to find "A Dangerous Road" and read it. You'll be convinced that Kris Nelscott has debuted with a winner. More than "just" a detective/mystery novel, Nelscott has given us real literature about a tragic and heroic figure. If you are tired of waiting for the next, long-overdue installment in Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins series, this is the book that will distract you from your misery.

I'm lucky. I learned of Kris Nelscott and this book only recently, so when I finished I was ecstatic to learn that the second installment, "Smoke Filled Rooms" was out in hardback.

Let me give you a clue as to how much I enjoyed this book: After reading "A Dangerous Road" in paperback, I immediately ordered the hardback edition for my library and then ordered "Smoke Filled Rooms" in hardback, too. Most of you devoted readers will understand that such a gesture is high praise indeed. Now I have Smoky Dalton's continuing adventures in my bag, just waiting for the moment I open it and read that first sentence.

All I need now is a visit by Nelscott to a local book store so that I can have my already treasured copies of the product of her art autographed and given a place of honor next to Mr. Mosley's novels (in hardback).

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Summary: Incredible historical mystery!
Review: A page-turning mystery, wrapped up in intense settings and revolving around memorable characters. You can't ask for much better, and apparently this is only Nelscott's first book! Must read!

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Summary: NELSCOTT'S WINNER STARRING SMOKEY DALTON
Review: As a mystery author with my debut novel in its initial release, I was fascinated by A DANGEROUS ROAD. Kris Nelscott has set her novel in Memphis in the days surrounding the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. She takes this factual historical mystery and superimposes her own fictional historical mystery on top of it. A intriguing technique in itself, but she doesn't stop there. She introduces a strong potential series lead in Smokey Dalton. In this book, a wealthy woman named Laura Hathaway wants to learn why her mother left Dalton some cash in her will. Dalton realizes this gift is the second significant contribution to him from the Hathaway family. Previously, an attorney delivered him a check from the Hathaways but refused to tell him why. Soon, Mr. Dalton and Ms. Hathaway join forces and launch their joint investigation against the backdrop of a city divided along racial grounds in one of the most chaotic eras of recent American history. Excellent book.

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Summary: Intriguing historical mystery
Review: In 1968, Memphis is a divided city with racial tension extremely high between the white population led by Mayor Loeb and the black population represented by the sanitation workers. As the workers begin their strike, white woman Laura Hathaway visits odd job specialist Billy "Smokey" Dalton in his office. She demands that he explain why her mother left him ten thousand dollars in her will. Smokey realizes that her private sleuth failed to find the link and she is fishing, but he does not know why. He fails to recognize his benefactor from her picture that Laura shows him.

After an unsatisfied Laura leaves, Smokey thinks back because this is not the first "gift" the Hathaways have given to him. He is as curious as she is, except his desire to know why goes back to 1960 when he received ten thousand dollars from a lawyer who claimed silence at the direction of his client. Laura appearing in his office has given him his first substantial lead in a quest to learn why he twice was given a substantial amount of cash. Smokey begins his own investigation.

A DANGEROUS ROAD is a fabulous historical mystery that brings to life the essence of Memphis during the period that leads to and includes the assassination of Martin Luther King. The story line is very appealing, as Smokey searches for the link with the help of a ten-year old street-wise kid. Except for the fact that this novel will make baby boomers feel old when the realization of how much time has passed, Kris Nelscott provides a winning tale that hopefully leads to more late sixties and seventies novels.

Harriet Klausner

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Summary: A Dangerous Road is hair-raising!
Review: In February 1968 the Sanitation Workers' Strike in Memphis, Tennessee is beginning to turn the city into a stinking chaos & the impending marches & the arrival of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is churning up relationships between the races: the protestors & the police & between a black PI & his very white client.

A Dangerous Road is a unique & blood curdling drive through a demented town, a fragile civilization & an ominous state of affairs & Kris Nelscott has kept the tension tight as a noose & as desperate as her hero's fears.

Taut, tangible & everso informative! Great fiction built upon epic facts! Can't wait for Smokey Dalton's next adventure. Very well done! Do visit my site for my full review.

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Summary: A Great Read
Review: Set in Memphis in 1968, Nelscott's novel takes place during the sanitation workers' strike culminating with Martin Luther King's assassination. Private detective Smokey Dalton, the protagonist, and King were childhood friends in Atlanta. Dalton left the city after his parents were lynched in 1939, a few days after the grand opening of the film "Gone With the Wind."

While Dalton fits the characteristics of the hard-boiled detective--a loner with a strong set of ethics--he is much more. Dalton lives in the black community but carefully keeps from participating in any way that would force him to commit to active involvement in the black movements of the time. Taking care that Jimmy, a young ten year old whose mother is a prostitute, remains in school is as far as Dalton will go.

Then Laura Hathaway, a wealthy young white woman from Chicago, enters his life. Hathaway's mother has just died and left $10,000 to Dalton. She wants to know why. When Dalton takes her case he will solve "the central mystery of [his] life, and in so doing, forfeit everything [he] holds dear."

"A Dangerous Road" is much more than the typical private-eye novel. Nelscott has created well-developed characters we care about. Smokey, sensitive and filled with anger over the unexplained lynching of is parents, finds himself caring for Laura. Laura is all of us from the North who have never experienced what life must be like for blacks living in a white-dominated society. We are also given glimpses of the private Dr.King behind the now-idealized public orator who moved the nation, black and white, into a new era or race relations.

Nelscott's story gains tension as Smokey realizes that Laura's life and his are inextricably woven together. He must deal with his growing attraction to Laura as well as the part her parents had in his own parents' deaths. The plot intricately follows the solving of the $10,000 bequest along with the still controversial events leading to King's murder.

Nelscott puts readers into a time when Americans were pushed into recognizing that life was not equal for all. Unlike so may shoot-em-up, violent novels in which the detective justifies his own killing of the "bad guys," Nelscott puts her characters into real-life situations that demand real-life reactions. By the end, we want to know more about Smokey and his life. If we are lucky, Kris Nelscott has a second Smokey Dalton novel in preparation.

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Summary: A Dangerous Road, An Excellent Book
Review: This book is one of the best novels I have read this year and has the well-deserved distinction of having been nominated for the Edgar Award for best mystery. The Bottoms by Joe R. Lansdale is good but I consider Ms. Nelscott's novel to be better.

Her main character is Smokey Dalton, a jack-of-all-trades who also finds work as a private investigator in Memphis, Tennessee. We learn that he was a former school classmate with Martin Luther King, Jr. and he is as happy as he can be living his life. Unfortunately, his world is about to be turned upside-down when he meets Laura Hathaway, who flew all the way from Chicago to look for him. It seems her mother left Smokey an inheritance for $10,000 and she wants to know why her mother willed him that money. He later discovers that Laura has a lot of questions regarding her mother and she hires Dalton to investigate. What Dalton discovers is a sinister connection with Ms. Hathaway that will change their lives forever.

The story takes place during the late sixties when Martin Luther King was active with the sanitation strikes occurring in the South. Dalton experiences prejudice, hatred, violence and turmoil throughout the entire book which in the end will only make him stronger.

Ms. Nelscott does an excellent job in developing this character that keeps the reader entranced to the plot. There is also a story of a little boy whose mother abandoned him and his brother is contributing to his possible delinquency by involving him as a drug courier and making him cut school. Dalton does his best to try to save this boy.

There is so much I would like to say about this book, but it is better if you read it and make up your own minds. You will be glad you did. I am also looking forward to reading Smokey Dalton's next book SMOKE-FILLED ROOMS which is now available.

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Summary: It's Smokey In Memphis
Review: This mystery introduces us to Smokey Dalton, a black private investigator living in troubled Memphis in 1968. Due to the colour of Smokey's skin and the period this is set, the racial issues dealt with are bordering on explosive. This is a remarkable work of fiction that integrates a factual event, that being the days leading up to the assassination of Martin Luther King, jr. It captures the tensions of the day with remarkable clarity and gives us an insight into how the black community of Memphis may have been affected.

The actual mystery part of the story involves a white woman, Laura Hathaway, who walks into Smokey's office one day, demanding to know why her mother would leave Smokey a bequest of $10,000 in her will. Although Smokey doesn't know her or her mother, he has always wondered about a mysterious benefactor who anonymously donated the same amount of money to him ten years ago. Laura decides to hire Smokey to find out about her family background, what secrets they were hiding and how he is involved in it. The results are shocking for the two of them.

This is a private investigator story with a difference; thanks to the time it is set and the fact that the protagonist is black. These two unique factors presents hurdles not faced by the majority of private investigators we read about these days. It's a powerful debut novel that has introduced us to a particularly likable, ethical character. Nelscott told us a great deal about the background of Smokey Dalton, making us sympathetic to his feelings and reactions, yet when I finished the book, I felt as though I wanted to learn more.