Friday's Forgotten Books, October 10, 2014

 Be back after 1:00 PM today to add any additional entries. Thanks!

The Devil’s Own Rag Doll, Mitchell Bartoy

Mitch Bartoy was in two or so of my writing classes in the early 2000s. It was clear that he had much more talent than anyone else in the class and he was already hard at work then on this novel, which took him ten years to write. The first time I read an excerpt I had chills. I was used to reading stories about undergraduates getting drunk or trips to outer space on the Starship Enterprise.

It is the summer of 1943. Industry in Detroit is at the center of the war effort. New people from the south especially are pouring into the city for the jobs. Detroit becomes a city of strangers.
A young woman is murdered. She’s the daughter of a prominent citizen and businessman as well. Detective Pete Caudill is assigned the investigation but also charged with covering up the crime rather than bringing the criminal or criminals to justice. Is this an Axis plot? Actually, it turns out that Pete Caudill’s own family is embarrassingly involved, a fact that doesn’t stop him from pursuing the murderer or murderers.
Pete is a great character. He's not too bright and has his own issues. But what shines even more is the period detail Mitch included. He went on to write a second book and then fell off the face of the earth--at least as far as I can tell.
This is one of the great books about Detroit for me.

Sergio Angelini, DETOUR, Helen Nielsen
Yvette Banek, THE VAULT, Peter Lovesey
Brian Busby, THE GREAT WAR, James A Ross
Bill Crider, PAPERBACK FORUM ISSUE TWO: 1985
Martin Edwards, KNIFE IN THE DARK, G.D.H. and Margaret Cole
Curt Evans, WOMAN SLEUTHS, ed. Martin H. Greenberg and Bill Pronzini
Ed Gorman, LAWLESS, Ed Brubaker, Sean Philips
Jerry House, THE STORY OF ULA AND OTHER TALES, Edwin Lester Arnold
Rick Horton, ACE DOUBLES: EMPIRE STAR, Samuel R. Delany; TREE OF IMETEN, Tom Purdon
Randy Johnson, DEATH OF A GUN FIGHTER, Lewis B. Patten
Nick Jones, CITY PRIMEVAL, Elmore Leonard
George Kelley, DIAGNOSIS IMPOSSIBLE, Edward D. Hoch
Margot Kinberg, ICE RUN, Steve Hamilton
Rob Kitchin, THE GREAT GATSBY, F. Scott Fitzgerald
B.V. Lawson, FIRST COME, FIRST KILL, Richard and  Frances Lockridge
Evan Lewis, TWISTED TALES, W.C. Tuttle
Steve Lewis, DOUBLE CROSS, Mike Moran
Todd Mason, Periodical Books and Fiction Magazines
J.F. Norris, NIGHTMARE COTTAGE. G.M Wilson
Neer, THE BURNING COURT and THE BLACK SPECTACLES, John Dickson Carr
James Reasoner, LAST STAND AT SABER RIVER, Elmore Leonard
Richard Robinson, WILLY AND JOE
Ron Scheer, SONG OF THE LARK, Willa Cather
Kevin Tipple, WALING THE PERFECT SQUARE, Reed Farrell Coleman
TracyK, LIE IN THE DARK, Dan Fesperman
Prashant Trikannad, VIENNA ASSIGNMENT, Olen Steinhauer