Kris Nelscott, Days of Rage

Days of Rage

Kris Nelscott

St. Martin's, Apr 2006, $24.95

ISBN: 0312325290

In 1969, Chicago is a divided city as the Chicago Eight stand trial. Businesswoman Laura Hathaway asks her sometimes lover, black Smokey Dalton, to investigate what happened to a now empty Queen Anne house that her father questionably purchased years ago and sublet into apartments. After filling up with tenants, over the years, the occupants dwindled until the only resident left was its manager Mortimer Hanley, who recently died.

Not sure why Laura needs him to investigate the building, Smokey moves slowly from room to room seeing nothing out of the ordinary. That is nothing until he enters the basement. It is bricked up with numerous rooms; inside of each are corpses. Laura hires criminologist Wayne LeDoux and funeral director Tim Minton to learn what happened and to take care of the bodies respectively. None of the men or their female patron realizes how deep and deadly racism cuts society, though Smokey for instance has been a victim, with skeletons taking them back to a 1919 riot.

The latest Smoky Dalton late 1960s historical whodunit is a terrific entry in what is one of the best on-going mystery series. The backdrop brings to life an era of protest through the powerful cast. The storyline provides some insight into Laura's background, especially the criminal activities of her late father. However, the strong thriller belongs to the investigation into the bones that Smokey uncovers as readers obtain a historiographic look from a 1968 perspective to lethal DAYS OF RAGE four dead decades earlier.

Harriet Klausner