Title: The Gone
Dead Train
Author: Lisa
Turner
Publisher: William
Morrow
Publication Date: July
22, 2014
Genre: Mystery
Reviewed by: Ellen
Fritz
Ellen’s rating: 5/5
SUMMARY
After time away to recover from the aftermath of a horrible
case that left his partner dead, Billy’s back in Memphis, drawn into an
ever-widening murder mystery that focuses on flawed heroes: a disgraced major
league baseball player, two legendary blues musicians on the lam, a straight-arrow
lady cop tortured by a guilty conscience, and two iconic civil rights warriors
with secrets so dark they’ll shock the nation.
Detective Billy Able is at a crossroads. His previous case left him questioning everything he believed about his abilities as a cop and as a friend. Even though he’s considering leaving police work behind, he’s unable to turn off the instincts he’s honed after a decade on the force.
But when he stops a crime from being committed, he finds himself embroiled in a much bigger scandal. A murder that has just taken place has connections to a series of much older crimes dating back to the civil rights movement. As he investigates, Billy uncovers so many layers of secrets he can barely keep the truth from the lies. And he knows the straight-laced cop assigned to the case is hiding something big. But is it connected to the case? This time he’s determined to make sure he finds out the truth before anything else can happen. But as the search for truth with the help of a Santeria Priest leads him deeper into the underbelly of Memphis, will Billy make it out alive?
Detective Billy Able is at a crossroads. His previous case left him questioning everything he believed about his abilities as a cop and as a friend. Even though he’s considering leaving police work behind, he’s unable to turn off the instincts he’s honed after a decade on the force.
But when he stops a crime from being committed, he finds himself embroiled in a much bigger scandal. A murder that has just taken place has connections to a series of much older crimes dating back to the civil rights movement. As he investigates, Billy uncovers so many layers of secrets he can barely keep the truth from the lies. And he knows the straight-laced cop assigned to the case is hiding something big. But is it connected to the case? This time he’s determined to make sure he finds out the truth before anything else can happen. But as the search for truth with the help of a Santeria Priest leads him deeper into the underbelly of Memphis, will Billy make it out alive?
REVIEW
As it had been a while since I last read a murder
mystery, I truly enjoyed reading The Gone
Dead Train. After two blues musicians and a former baseball star who asked
too many questions were murdered, Detective Billy Able, currently on leave, and
Patrol Officer Frankie Malone follow their natural instincts as cops to solve
the case. Too bad the cop actually assigned to these murders is a straight
laced racist.
I simply couldn't put this many-layered mystery down.
Apart from the beautifully written, never-a-dull-moment prose, colorful
descriptions of Memphis, and the engaging cast of characters, the thrill of the
hunt for the truth behind these deaths kept me turning the pages.
The characters, especially that of the main
characters, Billy Able and Frankie Malone, are realistically crafted and well
fleshed out. The author created believable back stories for both these
characters; back stories that have a definite effect on how they relate to the
case as well as to one another.
Other imaginative characters that make this book come
alive include J.J. aka Jesus Junior, the Santerían priest, Sergio Ramos, and
Theda Jones, an abused girl with a dream of stardom as well as a suspect who
performs in drag at a club.
On the antagonist side of the character cast are two
equally cleverly crafted characters. Don Dunsford, a supposed-to-be-good-guy
who is, infact, woefully inept at police work and a blatant racist with a
nastily malicious attitude towards Billy Able. The other, naturally, is the
murderer, whose identity is skillfully kept a secret until just about the end.
With secrets dating back to, and deeply rooted in the
civil rights era, The Gone Dead Train
is a multifaceted, yet profoundly humane story anybody who loves a good mystery
would want to read.
ABOUT the AUTHOR
Born in Memphis, Lisa Turner spent her
childhood either on the back of a horse or reading Southern fiction. From the
experience of managing her family’s interior design firm, she earned a PhD in
the peculiarities of human nature. Currently, she lives in two worlds – the
Deep South of her childhood and the wildly beautiful coast of Nova Scotia.
A Little Death in Dixie is Lisa
Turner’s debut novel.
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