South, America - A Jack Prine Novel (Paperback)

On an early Sunday morning walk through the empty streets of the Faubourg Marigny downriver of the French Quarter, maverick journalist and Big Easy transplant Jack Prine discovers the body of a well-dressed black man with a bashed-in skull. Soon Jack is drawn into an emerging web of violence threatening Elle Meridian, the victim s beautiful, complicated sister, burdened with a past she can barely confess. They begin a dangerous, desperate flight through Alabama, the Delta and back to New Orleans searching and evading button men, goons, racists and family secrets. Deadly ties extend to the Dixie Mafia, priceless stolen art and debased Southern aristocracy. A final, violent showdown in the Arts District of New Orleans uncovers one last nightmarish revelation that may bind Elle, Jack and a mob enforcer named Big Red for years to come -- if anyone survives. "What Rod Davis tackles masterfully in this faux hard-boiled mystery is the capturing in a simple plot of murder, investigation, solution, and deserved punishment of the essential truths of what it is to be born, nurtured, schooled, and acclimated to existence in the American South. Jack Prine's] struggle to understand the nature of where he truly lives provides this powerfully fascinating novel with energy, soul, and a hope that he'll return in another narrative to treat further what he calls 'the hard shadowed streets of the Vieux Carre, the American landfall for the fallen." -- Gerald Duff, Southern Literary Review "South, America may be set in the Deep South New Orleans and the Mississippi Delta but writer Rod Davis takes us into that classic hardboiled territory once claimed by James Cain: a man with a wandering eye drawn to a femme fatale who promises nothing but trouble, then delivers it." -- Christopher Cook, author of Robbers and Screen Door Jesus & Other Stories "Jack Prine is about as tough and gritty as Mike Hammer, especially when he has a lady to protect; corner him on a deserted back road at night and find out. A story that plays on black and white relationships over the generations, gay sexuality, the mean streets of New Orleans and the remote remnants of towns in the Mississippi Delta, South, America, is an honest, tough book and a riveting read. Rod Davis has given us a rugged and real character. I hope he keeps roaming the South in more episodes to come." -- Tony Dunbar, author of Crooked Man and Tubby Meets Katrina "This down-and-dirty yarn is a powerful evocation of pre-Katrina New Orleans and as absorbing a tale of love and evil to come out of this old town since Ace Atkins and Tony Dunbar hit the scene a few years back. South, America is a triumph of Southern noir, populated with characters who ll stay with you long after the last page, including sometime PI Jack Prine, Elle, his brainy and brave new love, and an all too-real supporting cast of thugs, low-lifes, and Southern degenerates. You heard it first here: In South, America, Rod Davis is the new mayor of the mean streets " -- Julie Smith, Edgar Award-winning author of the Skip Langdon and Talba Wallis series."