Dark End of the Street

Rating:
Summary: Unlikely characters and events
Review: It is hard to believe that an investigative reporter that had done much real life investigating could picture a bailbondsman/bounty hunter as a co-hero rather than a real (low) life bloodsucker. It may fit, however, a "yellow dog" writer that blames all bias on "R's" and omits the likes of Robert Byrd, Lester Maddox, Jesse Jackson, etc.
If you enjoy plastic construction of unbelievable characters that are fit into an unlikely stream of events in a weak plot, this is just the novel for you.

Rating:
Summary: complex
Review: This mystery contains a nice complex mix of characters and
locales. The "detective" is a minor staffer at a major southern
university who is researching early blues performers, and one
of his friends and benefactors asks him to try to find her brother, who, a blues man himself, disappeared about 30 years
before. Since he has been gone so long, he is presumed dead,
but as Nick, the searcher, looks into that disappearance, he is
surprised, under unpleasant circumstances, to learn that others
are also looking for the same 30-year-missing man.
His search brings Nick into contact with other blues performers,
gamblers, politicians, and some unsavory characters in the employ of the "Dixie Mafia."
As the search goes deepr, and becomes more complex, the action
heats up, and the violence becomes more pronounced.
Rather puzzling, though, is Nick's love for the "Old South,"
which couldn't have been that good for many people, especially
the old-time musicians he listens to and admires, because of
racial segregation, but he conforts himself with thoughts and
visions of the "Old South," while he continues his search for
the present missing brother.
His search uncovers many unpleasant truths about both the past
and the present, and he is only able to keep alive due to luck
and the "help of a few friends."
The reader will be engaged by the need to follow 30 years of
southern social and music history, while Nick fights some of
the nastiest psychopaths in print today.
Interesting reading.

Rating:
Summary: Don't let your personal politics fool you...
Review: Whether one is a dyed-in-the-wool Southern liberal like me or a conservative like my fellow reviewer from Savannah (see below), this book resonates. One should not let one's personal politics get in the way of recognizing that Atkins is one of the best thriller writers of his generation. Actually, if he continues to improve, he'll be one of the best writers of his generation, regardless of genre. To insinuate that he employs a "plastic construction of unbelievable characters" is absolutely ludicrous. The plot of Dark End of the Street is nuanced, its characters completely based in reality and richly realized.
Here in Mississippi, my friends at all ends of the political spectrum loved this book for its ability to bring our home to life, in all its wounded glory. In Dark End of the Street, I see the abiding love all Southerners, black or white, have for this region as well as the deep-rooted shame of slavery and racial oppression that still permeates the landscape.
Many people will never understand the dichotomy of the modern South. Ace Atkins does.
READ THIS BOOK.