The Queen City Detective Agency by Snowden Wright

I am one of those readers who believes that fiction authors should be free to create characters and plots, and that they do not have to be the same gender or race as the main character. It will be interesting to see what the crime fiction community has to say about Snowden Wright’s The Queen City Detective Agencya novel about a biracial ex-cop turned private investigator in 1980s Meridian, Mississippi. Although the story was a bit long-winded at times, the tone seemed right for 1985 in Reagan’s South, where it’s “Morning in America.”

It’s not easy being a woman, a biracial ex-cop turned private investigator, living in 1985 in the American South. Clementine Baldwin is a hard-drinking private investigator whose white father is in prison, and her anger is directed at him and herself as much as it is at every other white prejudiced person in Meridian. Two years earlier, she was forced to hire a white Vietnam veteran who is still remembered as a star quarterback. Dixon Hicks became a friend, even reading books Clem recommended so he could try to understand her anger and perspective. Hicks is the good guy in their partnership, and clients will talk to him while ignoring Clem.

Turnip Coogan flew out of prison while serving time for killing a local power broker. Turnip claimed it was murder for hire, and that the man’s widow was the one who hired him. Now, while Turnip’s death is being ruled a suicide, his mother is convinced it wasn’t. She hires the Queen City Detective Agency to prove her son was murdered.

Clem and Dixon have a complicated case on their hands, an investigation that stretches from prison to trailer parks to country clubs to a cockfight. Their investigation is clouded by rumors of the Dixie Mafia, a powerful group that may have hired a hitman to kill the developer who made money building strip malls and stores in the black community. A few people suggest that the Dixie Mafia is the offspring of the Ku Klux Klan, while most say there is no such thing. But someone is trying to kill Clem and Dixon to stop their investigation.

While I really liked Clem, Dixon, and several other characters, the story moves along a bit slowly. Wright does a great job of creating the atmosphere of the 80s in the south, though. Clem struggles with racism and gender bias. Hmm. The Queen City Detective Agency could have as much to say about our current climate as Meridian, Mississippi in Reagan’s America.

Snowden Wright’s website is https://snowdenwright.com/

The Queen City Detective Agency by Snowden Wright. William Morrow, 2024. ISBN 9780062963581 (hardcover), 272p.

FTC Full Disclosure – I received a proof through NetGalley to review for a magazine.