GHOST OF A FLEA

The culmination of Sallis's six-part story of New Orleans private detective/novelist Lew Griffin explores areas of the human condition rarely examined in mysteries. Narrator G. Valmont Thomas affects a world-weary tone as he intones bits of poetry along with evocative descriptions of “The Crescent City.” Novelist James Sallis creates a universe for his investigator in which loose strings are gathered but not always tied into a neat bow, and Thomas mirrors the whipsaw changes in tone, rhythm, time, point of view, and place, eventually producing an air of acquiescence and, at the moment of Griffin's passing, acceptance. R.O. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 2009]