ROOM TO SWING - Ed Lacy

Toussaint "Touie" Moore is a Black private investigator from New York in the 1950's. Moore has been framed, back in New York City, for the murder of a White man and must now investigate who's actually behind the murder and why he's the one being framed. His investigation brings him to a small town in Ohio, right on the border of Kentucky. This is not a particularly welcoming area to a Black man in the late 1950's, and doubly so for one accused of killing a White man, but if there's any chance of finding the real killer, Touie knows he's going to have to find the responsible party himself.

I'm a little embarrassed to admit that it's never crossed my mind that we don't see many Black detectives, either in literature or on the screen. People of color would likely note "of course you don't - that's part of the problem." Though I'd like to honestly believe that had there not been an introduction to this book which talked about the fact that this is one of the first appearances of a Black detective in fiction, I'm quite sure I wouldn't have thought twice about the fact that Touie was Black. This would have been a 50's detective novel that happened to have a Black detective in my mind.

Going into the book, having read the introduction and knowing of the importance of the character, I was struck by how casual Toussaint Moore came across. Though he does acknowledge that sometimes he doesn't know if people have an adverse reaction to him because he's Black, that he's a private detective, or even maybe that he's from New York.

The mystery is good and I definitely liked the character of Touie Moore. I'm curious what Black readers would think of him. Does he come across as authentic? This is written by a White man (who lived in Harlem and married a Black woman) and I didn't always feel Touie was as cautious as he should have been.

I enjoyed the book, and I definitely enjoyed it more having read the introduction and understood its significance.  Though it is also important to note that this was the Edgar Award winning novel for 1958 (which was my initial attraction to reading it).

Looking for a good book? The 1958 Edgar Award winning Room to Swing by Ed Lacy is not only significant for having won the award, but also for its main character, the first Black private detective of note in fiction.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

3-1/2 stars

* * * * * *

Room to Swing

author: Ed Lacy

publisher: Poisoned Pen Press

ISBN:  9781728263106

paperback, 224 pages

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