Thin Walls: A Smokey Dalton Novel

by Kris Nelscott

Overview

"Kris Nelscott can lay claim to the strongest series of detective novels now being written by an American author." Salon

Smokey Dalton and Jimmy, the young boy he protects, have settled into a new life on Chicago's South Side. But when Smokey gets hired to investigate the death of a black man in a local park, he realizes that the murder might not be an isolated case. The Chicago Police Department doesn't really investigate black deaths, particularly near the South Side.

The case forces Smokey to dig deeper into the history of the area, a history that includes gangs, racism, and secrets so dark they threaten his very existence.

Chosen as one of the top ten mystery novels of the year by the Chicago Tribune, Thin Walls shows why Publisher's Weekly gave it a starred review, and Booklist calls it "another fine entry in an outstanding series."

Read the whole gripping series:

A Dangerous Road, Book 1

Smoke-Filled Rooms, Book 2

Thin Walls, Book 3

Stone Cribs, Book 4

War at Home, Book 5

Days of Rage, Book 6

Street Justice, Book 7

"Somebody needs to say that Kris Nelscott is engaged in an ongoing fictional study of a thorny era in American political and racial history. If that's not enough to get 'serious' critics and readers to pay attention to her, it's their loss." Charles Taylor, Salon.com

Kris Nelscott is an open pen name used by New York Times bestselling author Kristine Kathryn Rusch.

The first Smokey Dalton novel, A Dangerous Road, won the Herodotus Award for Best Historical Mystery and was short-listed for the Edgar Award for Best Novel; the second, Smoke-Filled Rooms, was a PNBA Book Award finalist; and the third, Thin Walls, was one of the Chicago Tribune's best mysteries of the year. Kirkus chose Days of Rage as one of the top ten mysteries of the year and it was also nominated for a Shamus award for The Best Private Eye Hardcover Novel of the Year.

Entertainment Weekly says her equals are Walter Mosley and Raymond Chandler. Booklist calls the Smokey Dalton books "a high-class crime series."

For more information about Kris Nelscott, or author Kristine Kathryn Rusch's other works, please go to KristineKathrynRusch.com.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780615891996
Publisher:	Wmg Publishing
Publication date:	10/16/2013
Series:	Smokey Dalton Series , #3
Pages:	382
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.85(d)

About the Author

Kris Nelscott is an open pen name used by USA Today bestselling writer Kristine Kathryn Rusch.

The first Smokey Dalton novel, A Dangerous Road, won the Herodotus Award for Best Historical Mystery and was short-listed for the Edgar Award for Best Novel; the second, Smoke-Filled Rooms, was a PNBA Book Award finalist; and the third, Thin Walls, was one of the Chicago Tribune's best mysteries of the year. Kirkus chose Days of Rage as one of the top ten mysteries of the year and it was also nominated for a Shamus award for The Best Private Eye Hardcover Novel of the Year.

Entertainment Weekly says her equals are Walter Mosley and Raymond Chandler.

Booklist calls the Smokey Dalton books "a high-class crime series" and Salon says "Kris Nelscott can lay claim to the strongest series of detective novels now being written by an American author."

For more information about Kris Nelscott, please go to KrisNelscott.com.

Editorial Reviews

Chicago, December, 1968. Not a good place for a black man trying to hide himself and his 10-year-old son from the police and the FBI while starting a new life. Unlicensed PI Smokey Dalton, the man on the run, has assumed the name Bill Grimshaw in this third outing (after 2001's Smoke-Filled Rooms) from Nelscott (the pseudonym of SF author Kristine Kathryn Rusch). He has a plate full of trouble and not a whole lot else in a novel that recaptures the rage and helplessness that fueled the racial explosions of the late 1960s. Dalton/Grimshaw is clinging to vestiges of his former life, particularly his personal and professional relationship with Laura Hathaway, a rich, beautiful white woman who is trying to wrest control of the business her father left her from the directors he appointed. Dalton is serving as her security consultant while she plans her strategy. He is also trying to guide and protect his son, Jimmy, already under recruitment by the omnipresent gangs and struggling with schoolwork. On top of that, he's hired to investigate the murder of Louis Foster, a black dentist whose death has been seemingly ignored by the Chicago police. Nelscott handles this busy plot with aplomb and convincingly portrays the frustrations of various groups of whites and blacks as inexorable changes create friction. Dalton is a strong, compelling hero facing a tough case and an equally tough fight to protect his son and survive. Regional author tour. (Sept. 16) FYI: The first book in the series, A Dangerous Road (2000), was an Edgar nominee.

Publishers Weekly

This installation in Nelscott's "Smokey Dalton" series has so many disjointed subplots that it's easy to forget it's a murder mystery. Nelscott's earlier titles (A Dangerous Road) have been compared favorably with Walter Mosley's novels, but this volume is more like Easy Rawlins lite. Like Mosley, Nelscott, too, is using the private detective genre to examine the black experience in America, which is fine, except that this is principally supposed to be a crime story, and that element is often forgotten while the reader is bombarded with street gangs, Black Panthers, a corporate takeover, oversexed neighbors, a suicide, a racially motivated beating, and even a romance. It's unfortunate, because Nelscott writes well, and each of the subplots would make an interesting story in its own right. Sardined together within a series of murders, however, each one is only glanced upon, so it's both a case of too much and not enough. Nelscott might be someone to watch, but skip this book. Michael Rogers, "Library Journal" Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Chicago in the '60s is not quite the haven he hoped for when p.i. Smokey Dalton, assuming the name Bill Grimshaw, moved there from Memphis to protect himself and Jimmy, a young street kid who witnessed the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and knows who really pulled the trigger. Over the past year, a wholesale murderer of blacks has left nine, possibly more, knifed to death while the cops labeled the crimes merely unfortunate muggings. When they ignore the killing of dentist Louis Foster, too, his widow seeks out Smokey/Bill, who's gained a reputation as a defender of the black community (Smoke Filled Rooms, 2001, etc.). But Smokey's got his own problems. At the moment, he's working security for his sometime girlfriend, super-rich, lily-white Laura Hathaway, as she maneuvers to take over the board and revamp Sturdy Investments, her dead father's slumlord company. He's also fending off the Blackstone Rangers, the largest street gang in Chicago, as they menace Jimmy and his best friends. Eventually, however, Smokey-with the aid of Saul, a photographer brutalized for his biracial romance, and two cops, Johnson (black) and Sinkovich (white)-narrows the search for Foster's killer to residents of a "transitional" neighborhood, finally zeroing in on the killer racist and documenting his culpability so thoroughly that the police must take action. Black, white, or polka dot, everybody needs a friend like Smokey to fight bigotry from those in power, those grabbing for power, and even those seemingly powerless.

Kirkus Reviews