cover image A Negro and an Ofay: The Tales of Elliot Caprice

A Negro and an Ofay: The Tales of Elliot Caprice

Danny Gardner. Down & Out, $17.95 trade paper (262p) ISBN 978-1-943402-67-0

It’s 1952, and after a night of heavy drinking in a blues bar, Elliot Caprice wakes up in the Meat Locker, “the massive desegregated holding cell underneath the St. Louis County Courthouse,” thus beginning an energetic if episodic saga that involves multiple murders and an epic gun battle with the mob. Of mixed race, Caprice put in his time in a tank with Patton’s Third Army during WWII and served as a beat cop in Chicago. He’s been on the run for a year after killing a couple of crooked cops, but now he’s gone to ground. First-time novelist (and screenwriter) Gardner populates the action with a vast cast. You can see Danny Glover as the uncle about to lose the family farm back in Southville, Ill.—or, if the movie had been shot 40 years ago, acting the role of Caprice. Long on action and short on detection, this is a solid enough entry in the ranks of African-American crime fiction. [em]Agent: Elizabeth Kracht, Kimberly Cameron and Associates. (May) [/em]