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A new series from the author of the much-loved Clay Wolfe series, this is a very different kind of tale. Set in 1920’s prohibition-infused Brooklyn, the tone is darker, and disquieting, with themes that are both troubling and intense. The story is also historically rich, jam-packed with real-life characters of the day from literature, sport, music and even crime. Along with our hero, the huge and interestingly-named “8” Ballo (yes there is a story to this name!), a gumshoe private-eye of the hard-boiled variety, you will meet, between these pages, Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dorothy Parker, Coleman Hawkins, Hank DeBerry, Babe Ruth, and Willa Cather, not to mention the terrifying gangsters Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky, amongst others too numerous to name.

8 Ballo is an unusual man, – well-read, erudite, and schooled in literature, philosophy, and poetry, with a past that has left him both troubled and estranged from his family. 8 is also a war veteran, handy with his fists or a weapon, and has his own posse of friends and colleagues to help him. When 8 is hired by a wealthy and unlikeable business man to find his missing twenty-five year old daughter, Velma Hartmann, he is only somewhat prepared for the twisting and dangerous path that follows, one that leads him through the social, artistic, and criminal elements of the city and the time, tracing the steps of a modern flapper woman who appears to have been everywhere, and with everyone.

The author manages to capture the essence of a time-period and a setting as dark in its treatment of women, the poor, and people of color, as it it rife with tommy-guns, speak-easies, gambling, prostitution, and vicious mobsters. Readers of Golden Age detective fiction genre will be sure to enjoy this book and the start to this new series. The tale is violent, intricately plotted, and pulls no punches, demonstrating an authenticity to the era that Dashiell Hammett called his own. Without giving the plot away (no spoilers here), Velma’s trail is a challenging one, with some surprises in store, right up to the ending, which this reader found both weighty and satisfying.

A great big thank you to the author for an ARC of this book. All thoughts presented are my own.