Thin Walls: A Smokey Dalton Novel [Paperback]

Kris Nelscott (Author)

Book Description

Series: Smokey Dalton Novels | Publication Date: February 1, 2004

"I hear you help people find things."

So begins the latest case for Smokey Dalton, Kris Nelscott's enigmatic African-American p.i. But when Mrs. Alice Foster comes to the door of his small apartment, she's not missing a pet, or even a loved one: She wants Smokey to find her husband's killer. Three weeks ago, Louis Foster was found propped up against a tree in a city park, stabbed once through the heart. The cops have given up, and Smokey isn't surprised: It's 1968, and the Chicago PD cops who responded to the scene have clearly written off the death of this black man as a mugging gone wrong, or something equally unimportant. Case closed.

Not for Smokey. He starts at the beginning, enlisting the reluctant help of a photojournalist who took pictures at the scene. Then, going back through newspaper archives, looking for patterns, clues, wild theories-anything that will help him figure out why a middle-class black man would be found dead in a public park miles from home-Smokey learns something startling. Louis Foster doesn't look to be the first.

Amid trying to protect his adopted ten-year-old son, who's being hassled at school by some older gang members, Smokey, the photojournalist, and two renegade cops who risk their careers to help him, set off on the hunt for a killer.

Nelscott's Edgar Award-nominated A Dangerous Road, which introduced Smokey Dalton and told the story of the days leading up to Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination in Memphis, launched an atmospheric crime series set during one of the most turbulent times of our recent past. Now, in this third installment, she delivers a gripping thriller about one man struggling to build a life in this divided city the only way he knows how, and the men who would kill to stop him.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

After penning two novels set against headline-making incidents of the late 1960s, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. (A Dangerous Road) and Chicago's Democratic National Convention riots (Smoke-Filled Rooms), Kris Nelscott tackles less dramatic but hardly less explosive events in Thin Walls.

Unlicensed PI Smokey Dalton knows that while laws often seem black and white, in 1968 Chicago, justice is rarely colorblind. So he isn't surprised to hear that white local cops haven't solved the knifing death of black dentist Louis Foster, who perished far from his home on a day when he'd mysteriously left work early. But as Smokey tries to reconstruct Foster's final hours, in the process endangering a photographer whose shots of the corpse may help identify the murderer, he can't help wondering whether the dentist's interest in a racially evolving neighborhood is to blame for his fate as well as the overlooked deaths of other black Chicagoans.

Not that Dalton has time for much pondering. Besides the Foster investigation, he's also trying to protect his 10-year-old "son," Jimmy, from pubescent street gangsters and act as a bodyguard for his wealthy white friend, Laura Hathaway, who's determined to wrest control of her late father's corporation from its patronizing male managers. Nelscott (a pen name of science fiction author Kristine Kathryn Rusch) isn't subtle in drawing comparisons between racism and sexism, with Smokey--an emotionally charged figure whose troubled history makes him question absolutists of any color or conviction--fighting for whatever fairness he can find. More densely plotted than Walter Mosley's recent Easy Rawlins novels, Thin Walls is equally stimulating. --J. Kingston Pierce --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Chicago, December, 1968. Not a good place for a black man trying to hide himself and his 10-year-old son from the police and the FBI while starting a new life. Unlicensed PI Smokey Dalton, the man on the run, has assumed the name Bill Grimshaw in this third outing (after 2001's Smoke-Filled Rooms) from Nelscott (the pseudonym of SF author Kristine Kathryn Rusch). He has a plate full of trouble and not a whole lot else in a novel that recaptures the rage and helplessness that fueled the racial explosions of the late 1960s. Dalton/Grimshaw is clinging to vestiges of his former life, particularly his personal and professional relationship with Laura Hathaway, a rich, beautiful white woman who is trying to wrest control of the business her father left her from the directors he appointed. Dalton is serving as her security consultant while she plans her strategy. He is also trying to guide and protect his son, Jimmy, already under recruitment by the omnipresent gangs and struggling with schoolwork. On top of that, he's hired to investigate the murder of Louis Foster, a black dentist whose death has been seemingly ignored by the Chicago police. Nelscott handles this busy plot with aplomb and convincingly portrays the frustrations of various groups of whites and blacks as inexorable changes create friction. Dalton is a strong, compelling hero facing a tough case and an equally tough fight to protect his son and survive.an Edgar nominee.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books (February 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312320442
• ISBN-13: 978-0312320447
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,155,483 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fabulous tale that brings to life the turbulent sixties, September 14, 2002

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Thin Walls: A Smokey Dalton Novel (Hardcover)

By Christmas 1968, private eye Smokey Dalton and his ten year old son Jimmy continue to hide in Chicago knowing that various law enforcement agencies at all levels of government and some nasty private citizens want to find them. Jimmy eye-witnessed the killing of MLK and it is not the guy confessing from a prison cell. Unable to tell who is friend from foe because a police uniform means nothing, Smokey and Jimmy have changed identities in order to remain incognito.

To support the two of them, Smokey cannot obtain a formal but traceable sleuth license even under his alias of Bill Grimshaw. Instead he does whatever comes his way to include some under the table inquiries. While dealing with Jimmy and the gangs, and his lover/employer relationship with a wealthy white woman, "Bill" agrees to investigate the death of a Black dentist. Rather quickly, "Bill" finds himself in the middle of the very thing he needs to avoid: the FBI and other police officials investigating a potential serial killer.

The third Dalton historical mystery, THIN WALLS, is a fabulous tale that brings to life the turbulent sixties through the frustrations of various groups. This technique could have proven fatally stereotyped, but instead Kris Nelscott makes each group distinct in their rage at their inability to truly matter. The mystery is first class and Smokey's efforts to keep Jimmy clean feel genuine and makes him humanly like most caring parents. The series is as big a winner as the Detroit Tiger's World Series (Jets Superbowl was still a few weeks a way) victory.

Harriet Klausner

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Third In a Compelling Series, November 8, 2002

By 

Doris Lane (Jersey Shore, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Thin Walls: A Smokey Dalton Novel (Hardcover)

A respectable dentist is found dead in a Chicago park, his body posed in a manner that connects to crimes that were introduced in Smoke Filled Rooms, a series of murders of African-Americans. Young Jimmy Bailey is facing a new danger as he becomes susceptible to the romance of black power and prey to youthful street gangs who talk the talk, but don't walk the walk. Not to worry, the Black Panthers are nearby. Smokey Dalton confronts the gang issue in the only way he knows how, head on, while dealing with the ever escalating complications of the case on which he is working. How complicated is it? The trail to the killer of Dr. Foster leads into blue collar Chicago and the inner cogs of the Daley machine. White Chicago is in flight and Dr. Foster wanted to buy a house.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just An Outstanding Book In An Outstanding Series, March 5, 2004

By 

Untouchable (Sydney, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Thin Walls: A Smokey Dalton Novel (Paperback)

It's December 1968, eight months after the Democratic Convention and the riots that accompanied it, the setting of SMOKE-FILLED ROOMS. Smokey Dalton and his adopted son Jimmy are still hiding out after fleeing Memphis (and the FBI). Smokey is now working unofficially as a private detective, the same sort of job he had in Memphis and is only now beginning to feel comfortable in the new city.

Smokey is hired by a woman to investigate the murder of her husband after she was dissatisfied with the job the police did. She felt that because he was a black man the police made poor assumptions and gave the case a low priority without bothering to look too hard. In fact they attributed the death as a gang murder, even though the man was a respected dentist. The case is the catalyst to an investigation that leads him to uncover crimes on an unimagined magnitude. But because the crimes have been perpetrated on blacks, the solution is not as simple as just identifying the murderer.

Smokey has to juggle his time working on the case with getting Jimmy to and from school. A local gang, the Blackstone Rangers are attempting to recruit Jimmy, which would most likely lead to an inevitable life of crime. Smokey is determined to come up with a solution to put them off for good.

A further responsibility is heaped on Smokey's shoulders when Laura Hathaway asks him to act as her security for some hostile business negotiations in which she is involved. It is this sub-plot that highlights a second form of prejudice, that of sexual discrimination.

The story flows smoothly from crisis to crisis as Smokey handles each situation with his usual common sense and decency. Although he is challenged more regularly with the need to quell the impotent rage and frustration that he is filled with as he deals with bigotry and racism on a daily basis.

There is so much more to the Smokey Dalton books than just a mystery to be solved, although the mystery in this case is very interesting, cleverly constructed and relevant. Each of the books are also surrounded by turmoil often with a simmering feeling of unrest, echoed by the increasingly vocal Civil Rights movement and the backlash that it caused.

The mood of the book as seen through Smokey himself ranges from resignation to barely controlled fury. The portrayal of the racism that was prevalent at the time created some poignant moments and some tension-charged moments as the humiliation felt by Smokey emanated from the pages.

Two examples of this kind of racism stayed with me long after I finished the book. The first took place in a supermarket in a white neighbourhood that Smokey was passing through. He had decided to pick up some groceries and was pleasantly surprised to find the prices were much cheaper and the fruit and vegetables were much fresher than those found in his own neighbourhood. When he came to the checkout, the cashier simply refused to serve him, closing her checkout. The manager then confronted Smokey in front of everyone in the shop and advised him to leave the groceries and go.

Later that night while he was still seething, Smokey was to make the following observation about the incident.

"I hadn't encountered that kind of overt racism since I'd come to Chicago. Usually in Chicago, people smiled at you and then denied your rental application...

...I'd once said to Franklin that I'd preferred overt racism. At least then you knew where you stood.

I now regretted those words. Either kind of discrimination felt bad. Even now I felt nauseous, a sense of helplessness filling me."

The second example was much more shocking in it's brutality. A white man and his black girlfriend were bashed and raped by a couple of white men, outraged by the white man kissing "that monkey" in a park. The assault itself was shocking to start with, but then the assumptions made by the police when they arrived were even worse.

I found the issues that were raised very sobering and found myself being outraged by the unfairness of the treatment, knowing that scenes like these happened every day in real life.

This is another superb story that continues a terrific series set right in the middle of a time of great turmoil, occasionally touched by events that followed the Civil Rights Movement. In this book, Smokey crosses paths with the fledgling Black Panthers; serving as a reminder of the difficult times he was living in.

Once again, Kris Nelscott has produced an outstanding thriller and set it in a difficult place and time in history. I found it compelling reading, both for the tense thriller and for the thought it promoted by raising such strong issues.