Go Close Against the Enemy

by Takis Iakovou

Overview

In their knockout debut set in Delphi, Georgia, So Dear to Wicked Men, husband-and-wife restaurant owners Nick and Julia Lambros were forced into the roles of amateur sleuths when a patron died eating one of their breakfasts. But now the Oracle Café is facing another problem: an audit from the IRS.

As if that weren't frustrating enough, Nick and Julia soon become embroiled in more serious trouble. A young acquaintance of Julia's comes to the two for help when her life erupts in controversy. April Folsom, barely more than a girl, and her husband, Davon, are grieving the death of their stillborn son. But this simple tragedy is complicated when the congregation of their small-town church becomes divided over the issue of whether April and Davon can bury their son in the church cemetery, for the congregation is predominantly white, like April, and Davon is black.

Nick an Julia, along with their close friend, the genteel and "very" senior citizen Miss Alma Rayborn, attend the funeral and burial, which is where April's real troubles begin. Deacon Walter Fry, one of the church's leaders, leads a protest at the cemetery, and in front of all the mourners, April threatens Fry with a gun. Three day later Fry is found dead, and April finds herself charged with murder.

The capable, charming, and popular Nick and Julia, along with Miss Alma and Nick's cousin Spiros, take to sleuthing once again in order to help this young woman clear her name.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781466810419
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/15/1998
Series:	Nick and Julia Lambros Mysteries , #2
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	250
File size:	375 KB

About the Author

Takis and Judy Iakovou have owned and managed restaurants for nearly twenty years, but only recently have they put this experience to work writing mysteries. The authors of Nick and Julia Lambros's debut, So Dear to Wicked Men, they live in Athens, Georgia, with their two daughters and two Scottish terriers.

Judy and Takis Iakovou have owned and managed restaurants for nearly twenty years, but only recently have they put this experience to work writing mysteries. The authors of the Nick and Julia Lambros Mysteries, which begin with So Dear to Wicked Men, they live in Athens, Georgia, with their two daughters and two Scottish terriers.

Editorial Reviews

Nick and Julia Lambros, owners of a small restaurant in the college town of Delphi, Georgia, are dismayed by the actions of sanctimonious Walter Fry, married deacon of Mount Sinai Tabernacle Church. Fry is leading a loud vocal protest by church members as still-born Damien Folsom is being buried in the churchþs cemetery. Damienþs father, Davon, is black. His mother is April, the white daughter of the churchþs minister, Reverend Allen McNabb. After the funeral, a nasty scene ensues when a stressed-out April threatens Fry with a gun. Sheþs slapped by her father, and the gun is thrown into the shrubbery. The same night, Fry is found shot to death on his kitchen floor, killed by the same gun, and April is taken into custody. Aware of her success in solving a previous crime (So Dear to Wicked Men, 1996), April appeals to Julia for help. After a reluctant go-ahead from Louis Humphries, Aprilþs lawyer, Julia begins to search Fryþs background, turning up plenty thatþs unsavoryþa succession of young black mistresses; partnership in a raunchy dance hall, shifty money dealings, and more. A pair of local brutes lurk constantly in the background, eventually sending Davon to the hospital with life- threatening injuries. In the end, itþs a tiny piece of evidence and a complex theory that will free April and nail a killer. A rambling, sporadically suspenseful plot enlivened by some well-drawn characters and by the authorsþ heartfelt take on lingering racial injustice.

Kirkus Reviews