The Mobster's Lament by Ray CelestinMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
The Mobster's Lament has a lot to live up to, being the third in the so far excellent City Blues Quartet series of books by Ray Celestin.
A slightly worn and run down and older version of Michael Talbot enlists the helm of his former colleague and friend Ida Young to help investigate a grizzly hotel murder in New York that Michael's son, Tom has managed to find himself culpable for.
Upon dividing up the investigation, Michael and Ida's familiar chemistry is back, sharing out the investigation, though Michael finds it hard to distance himself and doesn't quite have the knack of his glory days as a Pinkerton detective. It's exasperating in places, as it should be - a retired detective forced back into service to save his son? Ida is desperate to help and is glad of the well timed distraction from an impending LA job offer.
In parallel, we read about mobster Gabrielle working for Frank Costello in an effort to uncover some missing 2 million dollars from what appears to be a casino scam (the first casino to be installed in Las Vegas). What Costello doesn't know is that Gabby wants out of the mob life, and if he doesn't wrap this up quickly he'll have his own dodgy dealings discovered, forcing him and his niece to forever be on the run...
Of course, both investigations seem to have more in common than it may first seem, and our detective duo are forced to deal with mobsters, druggies, thugs, vets and more from the underworld of New York City. Can they trust Gabby, and can they work together to uncover the truth and free Michael's son? I was genuinely guessing right up until the climax of this book, despite having ideas and theories of my own - exactly how a good detective story should be.
Ida's friend and Jazz not-so-superstar is back - Louis Armstrong is struggling, but Ida gets in touch for help with their investigation. Louis has a make it or break it gig arranged to try and lose the shadow of the big band and make his way back to legitimate jazz musician.
All the characters in this are interesting and well written, and there is such a wide range present, from the 2 faced mobsters, the detectives, eccentric junkies, bent cops and the musician scene, it really paints a vivid picture of New York at the time. As usual, Celestin has tried to base around real life characters and events, only shifting some dates to make the story "fit" in his intricately written NYC.
It feels grimy, can be brutal and gory, and for me was a real page turner, always so keen to just read that little bit more. The chapters are nice and short keeping a good pace, and I appreciate the character rosta at the beginning as a nice cheat sheet should things ever get a bit confusing (there are a lot of characters!). The mix of newspaper articles to break up sections, as well as a police interview towards the end add some nice variety, too.
Can they help free Michael's son, or is this one conspiracy that just goes too high? Only time will tell, and I can't recommend finding out highly enough. Fans of gangsters, jazz/blues music and detective novels will find something really special here.
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