Synopses & Reviews
The plan is simple. A favor really. All Nick Travers, a former professional football player turned professor, has to do is drive up Highway 61 from New Orleans to Memphis and track down the lost brother of one of his best friends. But as Travers knows, these simple jobs seldom turn out smoothly.
His friend's brother is Clyde James, who, in 1968, was one of the finest soul singers Memphis had to offer. But when James's wife and close friend were murdered, his life was shattered. He turned to the streets, where, decades ago, he disappeared.
Travers's search for the singer soon leads him to the casinos in Tunica, Mississippi, and converges with the agenda of the Dixie Mafia, a zealot gubernatorial candidate linked to a neo-Confederacy movement, and an obsessed killer who thinks he has a true spiritual link to the late Elvis Presley.
Welcome to Ace Atkins's new South, where you won't find a single southern belle or dripping magnolia. With a precise eye for detail, Atkins takes Travers on a journey into the hidden pockets of New Orleans, the battered roadhouses and truck stops of Mississippi, and the streets of Memphis that only an insider could know.
Review
"Once again, Atkins redeems shaky plotting by a colorful cast, especially big-hearted, picaresque Nick." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"In its way, [The Dark End of the Street], the third and (so far) finest in the Nick Travers series, is a rebuke to the notion that art is or should be enriching, comforting, therapeutic. In this book, art can kill you, and that is part of its greatness....Nick is hard-boiled without being a macho fool about it, and you can say the same of his creator. Atkins writes good, solid hard-boiled prose, with just enough of the smartass in it to steer clear of mannerist pastiche and enough sharp description to give his passages a lyrical punch. (One caveat: It's not a good idea to read Atkins on an empty stomach since his frequent descriptions of Southern cuisine can start your gastric juices rumbling like a Gene Krupa solo.)" Charles Taylor, Salon.com
Review
"Atkins offers another fast-paced, hot and heavy Southern suspense yarn that only occasionally defies credibility....The action doesn't let up....Some of the characters border on caricature....The only other false notes in this otherwise sharply observed thriller come in the confusing finale, a not very believable sting operation." Publishers Weekly
Review
"An engrossing music mystery that takes Atkins' New Orleans blues scholar to Memphis and the Delta. People who haven't yet read Atkins can pick up this third entry without missing anything previously. This is Atkins' best book by a mile, and I think he's poised on the brink of bestsellerdom. Discover him now." Ted O'Brien, BookSense 76
Review
"Ace Atkins is the real deal, a writer of exceptional talent with a razor-sharp eye for detail and an intimate knowledge of gritty street life. In Dark End of the Street his characters are so tangy and richly succulent, his story so tense and suspenseful, you'll have to restrain yourself from slurping it down in a single rush." James W. Hall
About the Author
Ace Atkins, an Alabama native, earned nominations for the Pulitzer Prize and the Livingston Award for his work covering crime at the Tampa Tribune. He now teaches at the University of Mississippi and lives on a century-old farm outside Oxford with a half-dozen faithful mutts, including Elvis and Polk Salad Annie. And yes, Ace is his real name.