Billy Ellison, the son of Washington, D.C.’s most influential African-American family, is found dead in the Potomac near a violent drug haven. This is when veteran metro reporter Sully Carter knows it’s time to start asking some serious questions – no matter what the consequences.
As with so many things, all is not quite what it seems, and Sully uncovers tentacles that stretch into prestigious social areas; areas which don’t welcome intrusion.
Sully is an edgy, gritty character, an alcoholic haunted by his years as a war correspondent in Bosnia.
(I was there just after the peace, researching a novel, and can empathise with that. It was a dangerous place and that’s when I first knew real fear.)
However, Sully is a reporter, and a bloody minded one at that, and he’s not about to be put off in his hunt for the truth.
I enjoyed this novel. Neely Tucker is that rare and wonderful being, an author who seems almost to be writing his own life story, such is his empathy with his main character. Sully lives and breathes. The style is as fractured as he is, the plot as edgy. This is a gritty novel, full of suspense and depth, which is not surprising I suppose, from a veteran Washington, D.C, reporter.
Ladies and Gentlemen, this novel lives. Go along for the ride. It will be worth it.
Murder, D.C. is available here.
The Ways of the Dead, Tucker’s first Sully novel is out in paperback now. Praised by Michael Connelly and the Daily Mail, amongst many, and published by Arrow.