Crossroad Blues
Ace Atkins
Carrefour, Ltd.
<p>Nick Travers is back where it all began.<br>
Years after The Philadelphia Inquirer proclaimed Crossroad Blues “an impressive debut by a promising new talent,” the acclaimed crime novel is back in print.<br>
A modern, Southern re-invention of The Maltese Falcon, Crossroad Blues won noir fans with its nod to the masters and thrilled readers with a wild ride along Highway 61. It’s here that we first meet Nick Travers, an ex-New Orleans Saint turned Tulane University blues historian. Nick searches for the lost recordings of 1930s bluesman Robert Johnson—and a missing colleague—and finds trouble at every turn.<br>
The cast of characters includes a red-headed siren, an Elvis-worshipping hitman, Johnson’s ghost, and the Mississippi Delta itself. A decade later, Crossroad Blues still sings.  </p>
<p>Critical Praise<br>
“In Atkins’ hands, the characters are as substantial as a down home breakfast of biscuits and ham with red-eye gravy.” —Entertainment Weekly<br>
“When (Atkins) old guys open up, you can really hear the music everybody talks about so reverently.” —The New York Times<br>
"Atkins' research into blues history adds depth and context to the always entertaining story, which whizzes by like an old, familiar song heard on the car radio late at night." —The Chicago Tribune  </p>
<p>This edition includes an Afterword by Greil Marcus  </p>
<p>**</p>Amazon.com Review
<p>Florida journalist and former college football player Ace Atkins takes full advantage of the legendary blues guitarist Robert Johnson's life, music, and strange death in his first mystery. And even though it bears the weight of two of the genre's most overused icons--a New Orleans setting and an ex-sports star as hero--<em>Crossroad Blues</em> is fresh and imaginative enough in all its other aspects to inspire hope for an ongoing series.</p>
<p>Yes, Nick Travers did play for the New Orleans Saints, but it wasn't an injury that turned him into a part-time detective and full-time expert on the blues. "Nick had been thrown out of the NFL for kicking his coach's ass during a Monday Night Football game," Atkins tell us. Now he teaches the occasional blues history class at Tulane, works on his biography of Guitar Slim, and plays his harmonica at JoJo's Blues Bar--a place so lovingly described that it should be real even if it isn't. When a Tulane colleague disappears on a quest for some hitherto unknown Johnson recordings in the Mississippi Delta town of Greenwood, Travers goes to look for him--and walks into a murderous mess of colorful sociopaths, including a deadly teenage Elvis lookalike and a slimy record producer who not only orchestrates violent crimes but also dares to use the blues as a marketing ploy for a chain of nightclubs. More, please. <em>--Dick Adler</em></p>
From Publishers Weekly
<p>The legendary blues guitarist Robert Johnson has been used for fictional purposes before (e.g., in Walter Mosley's RL's Dream), but Florida journalist Atkins takes full, fresh advantage of Johnson's life, music and strange death in his first mystery. Despite the weight of two overused genre staples (the New Orleans setting and an ex-sports star as hero), this lively debut sparks hope for an ongoing series. It wasn't an injury that turned Nick Travers, who played for the New Orleans Saints, into a part-time detective and full-time expert on the blues. "Nick had been thrown out of the NFL for kicking his coach's ass during a Monday Night Football game," the third-person narrator tell us. Now he teaches the occasional blues history class at Tulane, works on his biography of Guitar Slim and plays his harmonica at JoJo's Blues Bar?a place so deftly described that it should be real even if it isn't. When a Tulane colleague disappears on a quest for a hitherto unknown Johnson recording in the Mississippi Delta town of Greenwood, Travers goes to look for him?and walks into a murderous mess of colorful sociopaths. Among them are a deadly teenage Elvis lookalike and a slimy record producer who not only orchestrates violent crimes but, worse, dares to use the blues as a marketing ploy. This tale's a pleasure for both mystery and RL fans. <br>
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p></br></br></br></br></br></br></br>