FFB: The Long-Legged FLy, James Sallis

 

The Long-Legged Fly is the debut novel by James Sallis, featuring Black private detective Lew Griffin in New Orleans. It was followed by several more novels, all having an insect in the title. (And many other novels like DRIVE that did not)

It follows Griffin as he searches for missing persons across four different time periods (1964, 1970, 1984, 1990), with the cases serving as a backdrop to explore his own struggles with alcoholism, loneliness, and a troubled past. The book is praised for its lyrical, blues-like prose and its focus on character over traditional plot, making it more a story about a detective than a standard mystery. 

 

There are similarities between this series and Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlings books, which are set in L.A. 

The Long-Legged Fly is the debut novel by James Sallis, featuring Black private detective Lew Griffin in New Orleans, and is the first in a series. It's a literary noir that follows Griffin as he searches for missing persons across four different time periods (1964, 1970, 1984, 1990), with the cases serving as a backdrop to explore his own struggles with alcoholism, loneliness, and a troubled past. The book is praised for its lyrical, blues-like prose and its focus on character over traditional plot, making it more a story about a detective than a standard mystery. 

Key aspects of the book:

• Protagonist:

  Lew Griffin, a Black private investigator in New Orleans who is a poet, teacher, and heavy drinker. 
• Structure:

  The novel is divided into four self-contained sections, each focusing on a different missing person case, but all connected through Griffin's life. 
• Themes:

  Explores themes of identity, loneliness, addiction, and the search for meaning, often through the lens of the city's underbelly. 
• Genre:

  A blend of hardboiled detective fiction and literary fiction, often compared to the works of Raymond Chandler and James Lee Burke. 
• Series:

  It is the first book in the Lew Griffin series, which includes Moth, Black Hornet, Eye of the Cricket, Bluebottle, and Ghost of a Flea.