#FridayBookShare ~ Dead Man’s Blues by Ray Celestin #historical fiction set in 1920’s Chicago @ShelleyWilson72

#FridayBookShare ~ an excellent idea created by Shelley Wilson. 

With the weekend approaching it’s the perfect time to seek out new books to read, so Shelley created a Friday Book Share meme to help search for that ideal read.

Anyone can join in. Just answer the following F.R.I.D.A.Y. questions based on the book you’re either currently reading (or listening to, in my case) or have just finished reading. Use the hashtag #FridayBookShare and remember to tag Shelley (@ShelleyWilson72) 

First line of the book.

Recruit fans by adding the book blurb.

Introduce the main character using only three words.

Delightful design (add the cover of the book.)

Audience appeal (who would enjoy reading this book?)

Your favourite line/scene.

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I’m listening to Dead Man’s Blues, the follow-up to The Axeman’s Jazz. This story is set the Chicago of Al Capone, mobsters and gang warfare.

First line of the book.

Louis Armstrong ran down the platform as the Panama Limited was departing, his cardboard suitcase in one hand, his cornet case and tickets in the other.

Recruit fans by adding the book blurb.

Chicago, 1928. In the stifling summer heat three disturbing events take place. A clique of city leaders is poisoned in a fancy hotel. A white gangster is found mutilated in an alleyway in the Blackbelt. And a famous heiress vanishes without a trace.

Pinkerton detectives Michael Talbot and Ida Davis are hired to find the missing heiress by the girl’s troubled mother. But it proves harder than expected to find a face that is known across the city, and Ida must elicit the help of her friend Louis Armstrong.

While the police take little interest in the Blackbelt murder, Jacob Russo, crime scene photographer, can’t get the dead man’s image out of his head, and so he embarks on his own investigation.

And Dante Sanfelippo – rum-runner and fixer – is back in Chicago on the orders of Al Capone, who suspects there’s a traitor in the ranks and wants Dante to investigate. But Dante is struggling with his own problems as he is forced to return to the city he thought he’d never see again . . .

As the three parties edge closer to the truth, their paths cross and their lives are threatened. But will any of them find the answers they need in the capital of jazz, booze and corruption?

Introduce the main character using only three words.

There are several main characters but I’ll go for Dante Sanfelippo ~ broken, gent, addict.

Delightful design (add the cover of the book.)

Audience appeal (who would enjoy reading this book?)

Anyone who enjoys historical fiction, a good murder mystery, an excellent cast of characters with cameo appearances.

Your favourite line/scene.

Dante let out a whistle, impressed, then he looked for some way through the flowers, and after a moment he spotted it: a thin sliver of paving stones, heading to the front steps of the parlour, where three gunmen wearing suits and blank-slate expressions were standing guard. Dante sighed and slipped under the cordon and there was a gasp from the crowd, the people guessing he was a trespasser, unhinged, a man with a suicide twitch.

He threw his bag over his shoulder and strolled through the field of cornflowers, campanulas, forget-me-nots. As he approached, the gunmen tensed, their slouches dissolving, hands moving steadily into their jackets. When Dante was a few yards from the bottom of the steps, he stopped, and smiled, and nodded, and the men glared back at him with practiced looks. 

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Book links ~ Amazon UK | US