Skin Deep, Blood Red

Rating:
Summary: the shady side of the "Big Easy"
Review: good imaging of New Orleans in the 30's. The plot gets somewhat similar to a soap opera but is still a classic and solid whodunnit

Rating:
Summary: A fast-moving intriguing plot
Review: I've always wanted to visit New Orleans. Almost made it to a writers conference there a couple of years ago, but missed out at the last minute. Now I feel as if I've made up for that. (Though I still want to go in person.) New Orleans is a character in this novel. Both place and period are quickly established in the first paragraphs.--"The heavy downpour ended as suddenly as it had begun, leaving behind deep quiet and a multitude of glistening puddles. The newly born silence was quickly broken by the low-pitched growl of a long, dark Packard sedan that turned the corner at Washington Ave. and then headed north on Magazine Street. "The driver was feeling good. he'd just dropped seventy five dollars on FRench champagne and a blond whore who looked like Jean Harlow." Don't you just want to settle in and read on? The main character/sleuth is introduced in just as visual a way. "It was early afternoon as Wesley Farrell sat in his office upstairs from the nightclub he owned on Basin Street, flipping playing cards into an overturned hat on the floor......" We then hear about "the little wood-cabinet radio on his desk that softly played a number by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five Combo." Oh, I do like a writer who shows me where the character is and what he or she is doing! My inquiring mind abhors a vacuum. I like Wesley Farrell. He can hold his own in a fight, especially if he has the cold steel of his Solingen razor readily to hand, but he also thinks about things. He's passing for white at a time when it really mattered, but he's feeling increasingly uncomfortable about doing so. He is drawn into sleuthing when his great aunt Willi Mae Gautier insists he should find out what his young cousin Marcel Aristide is doing. She wants Wesley to stop Marcel before he gets in over his head. Wesley soon finds out it's a little late to be trying to save Marcel when Marcel is determined to dig himself in deeper, but he works at it and also takes on an investigation into the death of Chance Tartaglia--who'd got himself shot soon after he enjoyed that blond whore who looked like Jean Harlow. (I don't think that's a spoiler, it's right at the start.) It's not Wesley's idea to investigate, he's persuaded into it by a man named Ganns, who is not at all a nice man. Ganns has discovered Wesley Farrell's secret and threatens to expose it. The investigation takes Wesley into a lot of very interesting places, where he meets up with some very interesting, and often unpleasant people. He's a great character. He has a sort of love life, which isn't going too well in this story. Robert Skinner is a good writer and he brings his characters to life, even while he's killing them off! There are a lot of surprises in this book, and much satisfaction at the end. I liked it a lot. The next Wesley Farrell book is just out. I'm sure it will be just as intriguing. Respectfully submitted Margaret (Meg)Chittenden author of the Charlie Plato mystery series

Rating:
Summary: A fast-moving intriguing plot
Review: I've always wanted to visit New Orleans. Almost made it to a writers conference there a couple of years ago, but missed out at the last minute. Now I feel as if I've made up for that. (Though I still want to go in person.) New Orleans is a character in this novel. Both place and period are quickly established in the first paragraphs.--"The heavy downpour ended as suddenly as it had begun, leaving behind deep quiet and a multitude of glistening puddles. The newly born silence was quickly broken by the low-pitched growl of a long, dark Packard sedan that turned the corner at Washington Ave. and then headed north on Magazine Street. "The driver was feeling good. he'd just dropped seventy five dollars on FRench champagne and a blond whore who looked like Jean Harlow." Don't you just want to settle in and read on? The main character/sleuth is introduced in just as visual a way. "It was early afternoon as Wesley Farrell sat in his office upstairs from the nightclub he owned on Basin Street, flipping playing cards into an overturned hat on the floor......" We then hear about "the little wood-cabinet radio on his desk that softly played a number by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five Combo." Oh, I do like a writer who shows me where the character is and what he or she is doing! My inquiring mind abhors a vacuum. I like Wesley Farrell. He can hold his own in a fight, especially if he has the cold steel of his Solingen razor readily to hand, but he also thinks about things. He's passing for white at a time when it really mattered, but he's feeling increasingly uncomfortable about doing so. He is drawn into sleuthing when his great aunt Willi Mae Gautier insists he should find out what his young cousin Marcel Aristide is doing. She wants Wesley to stop Marcel before he gets in over his head. Wesley soon finds out it's a little late to be trying to save Marcel when Marcel is determined to dig himself in deeper, but he works at it and also takes on an investigation into the death of Chance Tartaglia--who'd got himself shot soon after he enjoyed that blond whore who looked like Jean Harlow. (I don't think that's a spoiler, it's right at the start.) It's not Wesley's idea to investigate, he's persuaded into it by a man named Ganns, who is not at all a nice man. Ganns has discovered Wesley Farrell's secret and threatens to expose it. The investigation takes Wesley into a lot of very interesting places, where he meets up with some very interesting, and often unpleasant people. He's a great character. He has a sort of love life, which isn't going too well in this story. Robert Skinner is a good writer and he brings his characters to life, even while he's killing them off! There are a lot of surprises in this book, and much satisfaction at the end. I liked it a lot. The next Wesley Farrell book is just out. I'm sure it will be just as intriguing. Respectfully submitted Margaret (Meg)Chittenden author of the Charlie Plato mystery series

Rating:
Summary: New Orleans during the Depression
Review: This book is first and foremost about color. Wesley Ferrell is a black man passing for white in New Orleans during the depression. I soon found myself wanting to protect his secret with him and getting nervous at various things that happened in the book

Wesley Ferrell is what I would term an antihero. He walks a fine line between being a criminal and a law-abiding citizen. He owns a couple of bars and a bordello, carries a gun and aswitchblade, and doesn't mind using them when the occasion calls for it. When a dirty cop is murdered, a mobster tells Ferrell he knows his secret and will reveal it to everybody if Ferrell doesn't find out who killed the cop. Of course Ferrell has no choice but to get involved.

I have a feeling we get to know Ferrell a lot better in the next book of the series.I had a tough time deciding how I felt about him in this book because there wasn't a lot of characterization except for his fear of being found out. His secret had made a loner out of him who trusted noone. It shaped his whole life and how he saw the world. One thing this book did for me was to reaffirm my belief of how stupid people have always been about color.

I had to laugh at one part where he is talking to a policeman and says, "You ain't got nothing on me, copper." I immediately pictured James Cagney playing the heavy. I'm looking forward to reading the sequel.