The Long-Legged Fly

The Long-Legged Fly is the first of James Sallis's noirish detective novels, featuring Lew Griffin, a black PI in near-contemporary (in this book, 1960s to the early 1990s) New Orleans. Griffin is a struggling man; struggling to make ends meet, but also fighting with racism and with his own demons - most notably drink, rage, and a sense of incompleteness in his life.

The novel is divided into four parts, each defined by a particular case. In 1964 he is hired to find a missing black activist leader, in 1970 a runaway girl, in 1984 the kid sister of an acquaintance and in 1990 his own son. The first case is the highest profile, but Griffin pursues each one in a low-key, bleakly realistic fashion, running down leads and shaking down potential informants; and hitting dead ends as often as not. In truth, the cases are a backdrop for Lew's own story; his evolution from a bitter, brutal ex-MP to a self-educated college teacher and novelist, by way of the revelations and relationships that get him there.

Moreover, the book presents a rich picture of New Orleans through the years, and one unaffected by sentimentality. No jazz-soaked romanticism or shadowy voodoo for Lew Griffin's New Orleans; this is a city dominated by particular shades of ingrained racism, politics, and above all, food, for Griffin is a gourmet of Southern cuisine.

An interesting book, although not an upbeat one by any stretch.