Fatal Scores by Mark de Castrique

 

First Line: "There's no place where a beer tastes better than at a baseball game."

 

When a local environmentalist is found dead in the Pigeon River, his death threatens both the upcoming Asheville Luminaries Festival and the proposed expansion of a local paper mill. Since the dead man was supposed to be at the river to collect water and soil samples and there were no samples to be found, his death is highly suspicious. 

 

The victim's family hires the Blackman Agency to find the truth, and as Sam Blackman and his partner Nakayla Robertson begin to investigate, leads point them in two directions: the father and son who own the paper mill, and someone who wants to disrupt the Asheville Luminaries Festival. Sam and Nakayla have their work cut out for them if they want to see justice done.

 

~

 

This is another one of my favorite series, and it reminds me of two others. One I'll talk about right now. When I recently reviewed Ellen Crosby's latest Wine Country mystery The French Paradox, I talked about how intelligent Crosby's books are. Well, Mark de Castrique's Blackman Agency books are also a feast for the intelligent, curious reader. This series is filled with strong characters, intriguing mysteries, history, art, literature, and vivid settings. If I thought reading Ellen Crosby's books was akin to spending time with a kindred spirit, then Mark de Castrique is a kindred spirit, too.

 

I never realized how rich Asheville, North Carolina's cultural heritage is until I began reading these books. Although the Asheville Luminaries Festival is fictitious, I would love to attend it due to the wealth of leaders in the humanities who've spent time there. In Fatal Scores, de Castrique introduces us to three more: Dr. Robert Moog, creator of the Moog synthesizer, composer Béla Bartók, and environmentalist and social activist Wilma Dykeman. Although I was familiar with Moog and Bartók, I'd never heard of Wilma Dykeman, and after reading Fatal Scores, I definitely wanted to correct my oversight. (It is Dykeman who said, "As we have misused our richest land, we have misused ourselves; as we have wasted our bountiful water, we have wasted ourselves; as we have diminished the lives of one whole segment of our people, we have diminished ourselves.")

 

It is Dykeman who ties in most closely to the mystery in this book, and this allows the author to touch upon a period of horrendous water pollution: the Pigeon River in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee was once known as the "Dead River" and Hartford, Tennessee as "Widowville" due to the deaths caused by deadly chemicals being dumped by paper mills.

 

One of the things I love most about this series is that these historical personages and events are woven carefully and skillfully into the narratives; I never feel as though I've been dumped in a classroom where I'll soon be tested on a bunch of dates and facts. 

 

The mystery is a good one in Fatal Scores, as is all the fascinating information, but the main thing that brings me back time after time is the characters. Sam Blackman is a former military investigator who lost his leg in Iraq. There's a serious side to the loss of his leg, but Sam isn't above poking a little fun at it as when he tells Nakayla, "Next time you try to stop me from saying something stupid, please step on my real foot, not my prosthesis." Nakayla Robertson is Sam's partner both romantically and professionally. She's also one strong, intelligent Black woman who's more than capable of holding her own in any situation. And here is where I'm reminded of another favorite series, Todd Borg's Owen McKenna series set in Lake Tahoe. Like Owen, Sam loves a strong, independent woman, and he's willing to take her on her own terms. You gotta love a man like that.

If you're an insatiably curious reader who loves to partner with nuanced, strong characters to solve intriguing mysteries while learning all sorts of fascinating things along the way, you can't go wrong with a Blackman Agency mystery by Mark de Castrique. Fatal Scores can be read as a standalone, but I'd suggest starting at the beginning with Blackman's Coffin.

Fatal Scores by Mark de Castrique

ISBN: 9781464213151

Poisoned Pen Press © 2021

Paperback, 272 pages

 

Private Investigatior, #8 Blackman Agency mystery

Rating: A

Source: Purchased from The Poisoned Pen.

Murder in Rat Alley by Mark de Castrique

First Line: The noonday heat smothered me.

A body unearthed during a forest fire at the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute outside of Asheville, North Carolina, should have caused barely a ripple; the body had been there a long time. But soon thereafter, a member of a mountain music group is found murdered in Rat Alley. The victim? The fiancée of the man found buried at the Institute. There has to be a reason. There has to be a connection between the two, and private investigator Sam Blackman and his partner Nakayla Robertson are determined to find out what it is.

I never would have known how interesting a spot Asheville, North Carolina is if not for Mark de Castrique's Sam Blackman mysteries. de Castrique is a master at blending past and present into engrossing tales, and Murder in Rat Alley is certainly no exception. 

Much of the action revolves around the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute, a real place that monitored space programs during the Cold War and now plays a vital role in gathering weather and climate data. The dead man was a computer genius who worked there, and the dead woman was his fiancée. Everyone assumed that the dead man just got cold feet and disappeared one night, but the discovery of his body close to the Institute buildings tells Sam and Nakayla that something more sinister is afoot. The two begin teasing out clues to what happened with some hair-raising results. When the killer was revealed, I told myself that I should have known-- much, much earlier the character had said something that should have made my clue detector go TILT.

I really enjoy this series for what I learn about Asheville's history and for the mysteries that are always fun to solve, but the glue that holds everything together is the team of Sam and Nakayla, an interracial couple who are first-rate investigators. They also have a great sense of humor and a fantastic support group that includes an eccentric lawyer and a veteran cop-- and a coonhound named Blue who likes to sleep a lot.

Whenever I know there's a new Sam Blackman mystery, I start packing my bags for Asheville. If you like the perfect blend of mystery, history, humor, and characterization, you should join me.

Murder in Rat Alley by Mark de Castrique

eISBN: 9781492699415

Poisoned Pen Press © 2019

eBook, 272 pages

Private Investigator, #7 Sam Blackman mystery

Rating: A

Source: Net Galley 

Hidden Scars by Mark de Castrique

First Line: My partner, Nakayla Robertson, had taken a long weekend in Charleston with the women in her book club for the annual retreat they called "Reading Between the Wines."

When an elderly friend of private investigator Sam Blackman asks him to stop by the nursing home, Sam quickly finds out that his friend had an ulterior motive. An eighty-year-old resident wants Sam to look into the suspicious death of her brother back in 1948, even though Sam tells her that there is very little chance that he'll find anything. 

The woman's brother, Paul Weaver, was a World War II veteran enrolled at Black Mountain College, a liberal local school, with an international reputation for innovation, thanks to a stellar faculty and advisors like Buckminster Fuller and Albert Einstein. Sam learns that a movie is currently being filmed which is set at the college, so he heads over to talk with the author upon whose book the movie is based. A man helping out on the set has information for Sam, but is murdered before Sam can talk to him. This death-- and one following it-- turn a cold case white hot.

If you haven't read a Sam Blackman mystery yet, I highly recommend that you remedy your oversight. Mark de Castrique writes one of the best private investigator series going, and I always look forward to each new installment. Sam Blackman is a former Army Chief Warrant Officer who lost his leg in Iraq. He and Nakayla Robertson are partners in both their professional and personal lives; they're an interracial couple loaded with intelligence and humor and have a wonderful support team that includes a lawyer and a police officer there in Asheville, North Carolina. 

These Sam Blackman mysteries always have something to do with Asheville's little-known yet fascinating history-- this time concerning Black Mountain College. The mystery not only involves the college, it also ties in present-day political shenanigans in the state's film industry as well as lingering racial tensions. The mystery in Hidden Scars moves smoothly and steadily to its conclusion, and I've found time and again that it's very easy to be seduced by de Castrique's story and forget to come up for air. And that humor I mentioned earlier? The humans don't have all the good scenes; Blue the coonhound and a rhinestone collar-wearing raccoon also have their parts to play.

I really enjoy this author's writing style. When I open one of his books, I feel as though I've stepped into his characters' lives. With each book's past woven into the present, de Castrique doesn't have to remind me of one of my favorite lines in literature: "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." Don't like The Great Gatsby? Don't let that keep you from getting acquainted with this excellent series. 
 

Hidden Scars by Mark de Castrique

eISBN: 9780464208973

Poisoned Pen Press © 2017

eBook, 229 pages

Private Investigator, #6 Sam Blackman mystery

Rating: A-

Source: Net Galley


 

A Specter of Justice by Mark de Castrique

First Line: Eating a jelly-filled doughnut takes concentration.

Sam Blackman needs to ease his conscience, so he agrees to help his partner with a fundraiser for orphaned twin boys there in Asheville, North Carolina. The boys' parents were killed in a courtroom shootout where Sam was a key witness against their father.

The fundraiser is a nighttime tour of the legendary haunted sites of Asheville, and it should have been harmless. Instead murders begin occurring which mimic local ghost tales. The police fear some sort of macabre serial killer, but Sam and partner Nakayla don't become involved until all the evidence  begins pointing right at Sam's friend, defense attorney Hewitt Donaldson. These two private investigators firmly believe in Donaldson's innocence, but first they have to discover the killer's motivation. Is it something that happened recently-- or is it a specter from the past?

Mark de Castrique writes compulsively readable books. There's something about the voice of his main character Sam Blackman that commands attention. If that's not enough, the fast pace of the book grabs a reader from the first tragic courtroom scene and won't let go until the final shot of a discarded piece of metal.   

Readers have to find out why Hewitt Donaldson is being railroaded, and it's not easy. The man's been very busy for a long long time, and the potential suspect list of people who might hold grudges against him is a long one. But as I said before, it's an intriguing path to the solution, and de Castrique peoples his book (as usual) with characters who don't fit the usual cubbyholes. How many times lately have readers run across a homicide detective who plays well with others and a fundamentalist preacher who isn't portrayed as a complete sleazeball? Not often, eh? This is one of the many reasons why I enjoy de Castrique's books.

An added bonus is learning something about the Asheville, North Carolina area. There's a lot more there than you may think, and I certainly did appreciate learning about some of the city's more haunted aspects this time around. 

Sam Blackman and his partner Nakayla Robertson are two of the good ones, and you should seriously consider reading all of their well-written adventures. Do you have to begin at the beginning? No... it's not mandatory, but don't be surprised if you read A Specter of Justice and find yourself looking for the rest of the series!
    

A Specter of Justice by Mark de Castrique

ISBN: 9781464204722

Poisoned Pen Press © 2015

Hardcover, 250 pages

Private Investigator, #5 Sam Blackman mystery

Rating: A

Source: Net Galley 

A Murder in Passing by Mark de Castrique

First Line: "So, where are we going?"

It's a legitimate question. The Blackman and Robertson Detective Agency of Asheville, North Carolina has no clients, and the inactivity is driving Sam Blackman nuts. So crazy that he grudgingly agrees to join his business partner and lover Nakayla Robertson on a mushroom hunt on the historic site of The Kingdom of the Happy Land, a freed-slave commune. His search for fungi leads to the discovery of a body, but since The Kingdom of the Happy Land straddles the North Carolina - South Carolina border, the case isn't his and law enforcement tells him in no uncertain terms to keep his hands off.

When Marsha Montgomery comes to Blackman and Robertson wanting the firm's expertise in solving the theft of a rifle and photograph from her mother's house in 1967, Sam smells a set-up. The photo was taken by a renowned photographer in 1932 and shows Marsha's mother, grandmother and great-grandmother on the site of The Kingdom of the Happy Land. Soon thereafter Marsha's 85-year-old grandmother is charged with murder, and Sam has business for his detective agency.

In this fourth outing of Iraqi war veteran Sam Blackman and his partner Nakayla Robertson, Mark de Castrique has done another exemplary job in wrapping a bit of North Carolina history inside an intriguing mystery. The history in this case involves the end of the Civil War and a group of freed slaves looking for a new home. In South Carolina this group was told by other former slaves of a place where mountains stretched for mile after uninhabited mile, a place where freed slaves might be able to find a small piece of land for a home. The group traveled there, and The Kingdom of the Happy Land was born. This bittersweet taste of history blends nicely into a tale of secrets and murder.

The author's characters blend quite nicely into the tale as well. De Castrique's characters are always a strong point in any book he writes (along with a delicious sense of humor that rears its head from time to time). Having lost a leg in Iraq, Sam makes a point of visiting the local veterans' hospital to spend time with patients and to drop off needed items. In A Murder in Passing, he befriends a particularly troubled vet and becomes his mentor, laying the groundwork for a job and housing and getting the young man on the road to a happier life-- and into the mystery.

In reading this book, it's not that difficult to see who must be responsible all those years ago of murdering the man whose remains Blackman found. The problem lies in how it all was accomplished, and de Castrique deals with it in his usual skillful manner. Intriguing plot, characters that draw you right into the story and make you care about them, good pacing... all this combined with humor and subtlety. It probably has as much to do with my upbringing as it does de Castrique's subtlety, but I didn't realize the title of the book had more than one meaning until I'd almost finished it. I look forward to the day when all people can read the title of A Murder in Passing and not see its quiet subtext.

A Murder in Passing by Mark de Castrique

ISBN: 9781464201516

Poisoned Pen Press © 2013

Paperback, 250 pages

Private Investigator, #4 Sam Blackman mystery

Rating: A-

Source: NetGalley

The Sandburg Connection by Mark de Castrique

Title: The Sandburg Connection
Author: Mark de Castrique
ISBN: 9781590589427
Publisher:  Poisoned Pen Press, 2011
Paperback, 250 pages
Genre: Private Investigator, #3 Sam Blackman mystery
Rating: A
Source: Read as an eBook through Net Galley.

First Line: The beep caught me in mid-bite.

Sam Blackman and his partner, Nakayla Robertson, have been hired by an insurance company to follow Professor Janice Wainwright, who's suing a surgeon for malpractice. The insurance company wants to catch Wainwright doing things she's not supposed to be able to do so her case can be thrown out of court. So far, the things that Sam has learned about Wainwright aren't very complimentary, and he believes that this case will be pretty open-and-shut, especially when Wainwright drives to Connemara (Carl Sandburg's home in Flat Rock, North Carolina) and begins climbing a tough hiking trail to the top of a mountain. 

Sam, who lost a leg while serving in Iraq, isn't properly equipped to follow her, but he does, only to hear her fall and find her bleeding and semi-conscious. "It's the Sandburg verses" were her last words. An autopsy is performed which proves that the surgeon bungled the operation, and Sam is left with questions that need answers. Why did Wainwright climb that mountain when she was in so much pain? Was someone else there? What are the Sandburg verses? When Wainwright's farmhouse is broken into and Sandburg books stolen, Sam becomes convinced that someone is searching for information that's worth killing for.

Sometimes I'm ashamed of myself. Why is it that, when I find out someone is being investigated for some sort of insurance fraud, I automatically assume that person is guilty? With my distrust of large corporations, you'd think that the opposite would be true. Personal shortcomings aside, I liked seeing how the perception of Wainwright's character evolved through the opening chapters of the book.

When Sam learns that Wainwright has a teenaged daughter, he goes to meet the girl, and she is an emotional, mixed-up mess-- as anyone her age would be when faced with the death of a parent. The girl tugs on the heartstrings in more than one way. Yes, she is the catalyst for doing what's right and for doing what's best for her, but she also introduces a welcome note of humor in the form of a pregnant goat. How Sam reacts to the goat is very funny indeed.

Thanks to Mark de Castrique, I now know that Asheville, North Carolina, is a literary hotbed.  Sam Blackman has solved mysteries involving Tom Wolfe and F. Scott Fitzgerald; now it's Carl Sandburg's turn. As long as he writes 'em, I'm going to read 'em. The famous literary figure is the hook that draws me in, and the team of Sam and Nakayla keeps me taking the bait. The two have an easy, witty chemistry that makes the pages turn all too quickly, and the Asheville area is scenic and rich in history. What a combination! I may even read up on Asheville in order to try to guess what their future investigations may be!

The Fitzgerald Ruse by Mark De Castrique

Title: The Fitzgerald Ruse
Author: Mark De Castrique
ISBN: 9781590586303
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press, 2009
Paperback, 400 pages
Genre: Private Investigator, #2 Sam Blackman mystery
Rating: A
Source: Purchased from Alibris.

First Line: The night sky around Asheville can play tricks on the eye.

Former U.S. military CID officer Sam Blackman and his lover, Nakayla Robertson, have set up a detective agency in Asheville, North Carolina. Their first client, Ethel Barkley, is a bit eccentric and lives in a retirement home. Her request? To retrieve a lockbox which contains an F. Scott Fitzgerald manuscript. Mrs. Barkley feels the need to right a wrong she committed over seventy years ago.

No sooner than Sam and Nakayla have the lockbox in their possession than it's stolen and a security guard is killed. As Blackman and Robertson investigate, they find that either someone is killing to protect an American fascist organization that flourished in the 1930s, or rogue Blackwater mercenaries have come after the loot they believe Sam stole from them. Either way, Sam and Nakayla have to put together their evidence quickly before anyone else dies.

The strengths of The Fitzgerald Ruse lie in its plot, which is based on various historical occurrences in the Asheville, North Carolina area, and in its main characters of Sam Blackman and Nakayla Robertson.

Sam has come a long way since the first book in the series, Blackman's Coffin. In the first book, he was a bit too bitter and whiny after having had a leg amputated while serving in Iraq. (Yes, I do have a heart, and I do have compassion, but there comes a point when bitterness and whining start to detract from a story instead of giving a reader insight into a character.) In this second book, he's  come a long way in accepting what happened, and de Castrique adds several pieces of information which help the reader better understand amputees.

Nakayla Robertson is a strong woman and a good choice to be able to stand up to the rather forceful Sam, and their banter brings a welcome breeze of humor into the novel.

Do you have to read the first book in this series to have The Fitzgerald Ruse make sense? Absolutely not, but I'd suggest that you read it anyway for the amazing plot and for the first glimpses into the characters of Sam and Nakayla. I'm really looking forward to reading more of their adventures.

Blackman's Coffin by Mark de Castrique

Title: Blackman's Coffin 

Author: Mark de Castrique  

ISBN: 9781590586228, Poisoned Pen Press, 2008 

Genre: P.I., #1 Sam Blackman mystery series 

Rating: A 

 

First Line: I felt a hand on my shoulder, shaking me awake. 

 

Overly critical of how the US government treats its veterans, Sam Blackman has been shunted away from Washington, DC and into a veterans' hospital in rural North Carolina. Blackman, an amputee and Army veteran of the Iraq war, has a few days of rehab left before he's turned loose to go live with his brother. He needs to make a decision about his future, but he's too busy (1) being angry, and (2) enjoying his self-hosted pity party. That is, until until former Marine Tikima Robertson walks in with her no-nonsense attitude and an Elmore Leonard mystery:

"Came through there myself three years ago. They tried to give me one of those new fake arms they claim looks real. Black plastic supposed to match my skin. My skin's no more black than yours is white. I looked like I'd stolen the arm off Darth Vader. I said forget this, give me something that works."

Tikima was just what Sam needed. Telling him that she had work that she thought he'd find interesting, she promises to come back. She doesn't. When Sam gets the all-clear to leave the hospital, he calls the company she works for and discovers that her body's been pulled from the French Broad River that flows through the Biltmore Estate outside of Asheville. The evening after her funeral, Tikima's sister, Nakayla, contacts Sam. Nakayla knows why her sister wanted Sam's help. It all has to do with The Journal of Henderson Youngblood--a book that Nakayla believes was responsible for her sister's death. When the two start investigating, they find a mystery with century-old ties to the Robertson family, to the Biltmore Estate, and to writer Thomas Wolfe. De Castrique is a very assured writer. He knows how to include the history of the Asheville area, of the Biltmore and of Thomas Wolfe without slowing the pace of the story or sounding like a professor. Having a 90-year-old journal woven into the storyline provides even more interest and depth--also with no decrease in the plot's speed. 

The author is a very deft hand at characterization. Tikima Robertson has one short scene, but it's a powerful one that makes her one of the most memorable characters in the book. Blackman isn't left to stagnate in self-pity. The dilemmas he must face as an amputee are realistic, as are his reactions to them. I just plain flat out had a marvelous time reading this book. I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. My brain always seemed a half step behind Sam's as we both tried to solve the mystery. Another thing that was a refreshing change: except for the Bad Guys themselves, most of the characters in Blackman's Coffin were honorable people wanting to do the right thing. In mysteries, that can be a rarity. The next book in this series, The Fitzgerald Ruse, is set to be released on August 1. I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on it!