All Through the Night

Set in 1966, Wright’s overlong, overwrought second novel featuring former Barbados cop J.T. Ellington (after Heartman) finds Ellington, who’s now an “enquiry agent” in Bristol, England, taking on what appears to be a straightforward assignment. Ida Stephens, an administrator at the Walter Wilkins orphanage, hires him to retrieve death certificates stolen from the home and to ask Dr. Theodore Fowler, like Ellington a black man, where they can find “the truth.” Fowler is killed, but not before telling Ellington where he can locate what he’s after: “Truth” turns out to be a frightened eight- or nine-year-old white girl, hidden away for her protection from those who wish her ill. Ellington soon goes on the run with the girl in tow, pursued by good cops, bad cops, and a couple of deadly Yanks. He and Truth bond as the violence escalates in this melodramatic crime novel, whose mostly one-dimensional characters are either really evil or really good. [em]Agent: Phil Patterson, Marjacq Scripts (U.K.). (May) [/em]