Negro & an Ofay

In 1952, after a year on the run, disgraced Chicago Police Officer Elliot Caprice wakes up in a jailhouse in St. Louis. His friends from his hometown secure his release and he returns to find the family farm in foreclosure and the man who raised him dying in a flophouse. Desperate for money, he accepts a straight job as a process server and eventually crosses paths with a powerful family from Chicago's North Shore. A captain of industry is dead, the key to his estate disappeared with the chauffeur, and soon Elliot is in up to his neck. The mixed-race son of Illinois farm country must return to the Windy City with the Chicago Police on his heels and the Syndicate at his throat. Good thing he's had a lifetime of playing both sides to the middle.

"You can see Danny Glover as the uncle about to lose the family farm back in Southville, Ill.a or, if the movie had been shot 40 years ago, acting the role of Caprice." Publishers Weekly

"Gardner's hard-bitten crime drama is candid, unflinching, and full of gallows humor." Foreword Reviews

"Raw and intimate, violent and intense, Gardner's dialogue buzzes with authenticity. A fast-moving crime novel with a soul, Gardner's coming-out party is a dead-bang winner." Shelf Awareness

From his beginnings as a young stand-up comedian (Def Comedy Jam All-Stars, Vol. 12), Danny Gardner has enjoyed careers as an actor, director, and screenwriter. He is a recent Pushcart Prize nominee for his creative non-fiction piece "Forever. In an Instant.," published by Literary Orphans Journal. His first short fiction piece, Labor Day, appeared in Beat to a Pulp, and his flash fiction has been featured in Out of the Gutter and on Noir On The Air. He is a frequent reader at Noir at the Bar events nationwide. He blogs regularly at 7 Criminal Minds. He is a proud member of the Mystery Writers of America and the International Thriller Writers.