What do you think?
Rate this book
Elder Darrow Mystery #2
Solo Act
An alcoholic walks into a bar -- and buys it. Elder Darrow uses the last of his mother's trust fund money to buy a bucket of blood bar in Boston and try to turn it into a nightclub. When his ex-lover, a jazz singer named Alison Somers, commits suicide, his sobriety falls into question. With the reluctant help of his friend Dan Burton, a homicide cop, Elder investigates and exposes a conspiracy of local thugs, corrupt physicians, and shipments of questionable pharmaceuticals, proving that Alison was murdered.
275 pages, Hardcover
Published January 20, 2016
8 people are currently reading
16 people want to read
About the author
Richard J. Cass
12 books18 followersRichard Cass grew up in Boston, lived through the bussing years, and graduated from Boston Latin School, the oldest public school in the United States. He’s had the very good fortune to study with such superb writers and teachers as Thomas Williams Jr., Ernest Hebert, and Ursula K. LeGuin.
He is the author of Solo Act, the first novel in the Elder Darrow Boston jazz mystery series, which he pitched as “an alcoholic walks into a dive bar and decides to buy it.” Solo Act was published in January of 2016 and was a finalist for the 2017 Maine Literary Awards in the Crime Fiction category. The prequel to Solo Act, In Solo Time, was published in September, 2017. Burton’s Solo, Book 3, came out in 2018. Last Call at the Esposito, Book 4, was published in 2019, and Book 5, Sweetie Bogan’s Sorrow, appeared in 2020. Book 6, tentatively titled Mickey’s Monkey, is scheduled for publication in November 2021.
Dick serves on the board of Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance and lives in Cape Elizabeth, ME. Reach him at @DickCass on Twitter or through his web site rjcassbooks.com.
He is the author of Solo Act, the first novel in the Elder Darrow Boston jazz mystery series, which he pitched as “an alcoholic walks into a dive bar and decides to buy it.” Solo Act was published in January of 2016 and was a finalist for the 2017 Maine Literary Awards in the Crime Fiction category. The prequel to Solo Act, In Solo Time, was published in September, 2017. Burton’s Solo, Book 3, came out in 2018. Last Call at the Esposito, Book 4, was published in 2019, and Book 5, Sweetie Bogan’s Sorrow, appeared in 2020. Book 6, tentatively titled Mickey’s Monkey, is scheduled for publication in November 2021.
Dick serves on the board of Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance and lives in Cape Elizabeth, ME. Reach him at @DickCass on Twitter or through his web site rjcassbooks.com.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 13, 2022
Elder Darrow is an alcoholic running a jazz bar in Boston. What's not to love about that? Cass's writing style is clear and concise, except for the crazy similes. The characters are believable and charming in their aggravating ways. The story line kept me engaged. The familiar Boston locales and references to music I love just add to the attraction. I'm so glad this is a series because I want more of Elder Darrow.
June 9, 2016
I enjoyed getting to know Elder Darrow. I look forward to seeing him again!
August 2, 2016
Elder Darrow’s family had been in investment banking “since the Revolution.” He was raised to “learn the mores and manners of the ruling caste.”
But now he’s a recovering alcoholic and he owns a bar called the Esposito. He’s into jazz. He’s a bit of music nut. Managing the soundtrack at the bar is one of the ways that Darrow is trying to upgrade the reputation of the once-bleak watering hole, purchased with a trust fund windfall. He knows when Paquito Rivera needs be swapped out for Bill Evans.
Darrow is trying to upgrade the bar, and its clientele, the same way he’s trying to upgrade how he thinks about himself. His reputation. His last chance for “straightening out” is the management, in fact, of this bar. “All forty-four by fifty feet of it, sixteen-foot tin ceilings and the twelve metal stairs, same number as to the gallows, with a steel-pipe railing up to the street door.” There’s a triangular stage in the corner, “big enough for a trio as long as none of them was fat.”
Darrow has been sober for a year a half, but has positioned himself smack in the middle of temptation, pouring drinks for others. Darrow’s days as the owner of a pub started with a grand bargain. The deal was that his father’s bank would hire him if he could stay dry for two years and run the Esposito at a profit. But then dad died and he is left to wonder why he still cares. Elder Darrow is good at asking questions of himself.
One of Darrow’s regulars is a jazz-loving cop named Dan Burton who gets called away on a “sidewalk diver.” That suicide turns out to be a singer named Alison Somers. Darrow had been “utterly absorbed” with Somers for six months and the idea of her taking her own life doesn’t sit well.
As the motivation for amateur sleuths go, this is a nifty one. Darrow’s interests in Somers’ demise tangle with his own personal journey of discovery and the daily tests of his sobriety. His background, after all, could not have been more different than her youth in Roxbury, the poorest part of the city. How well did he know her? He had a pact with Somers—and assumed the pact remained despite the split. The deal was this: he would stay sober if she’d keep taking her anti-depressants. “But if I were ever going to be sure of that, I was going to have to find out for myself. Because I was afraid that if she had killed herself, then I would find my own reason to start drinking again, and then both of our stories would be over. If I didn’t do something, I was failing her memory and probably obliterating my own.”
With this great set-up, Solo Act follows Darrow as he begins asking questions and poking around. This isn’t a case of bar/restaurant turned Jack Reacher, it’s a case of one real man taking one step and then the next to get at some troubling and unresolved questions. Cass doesn’t push the pace, he lets the weight of Somers’ demise tug on Darrow’s soul.
Crafted for humanity and not designed to set pulses racing, Richard Cass chops in nifty, poetic snippets of Boston streets and alleys, noir-ish vibes and sounds (cue the sorrowful sax.) Cass intersperses Darrow’s trail with chapters that give us glimpses into the lives of the prescription pill bootleggers with their questionable plans and distrust in the ranks.
The Boston setting comes to life, but it’s a glitz-free view with back alley trash and dank smells. There’s a woman. And temptations. Failure lurks. One slip and Darrow know he won’t get credit for all the time he stayed clean. Darrow examines addiction from all angles. The investigation becomes a reflection of his own nature as much as finding out why Alison plunged to her death. In the end, Darrow is both bartender and barfly. He’s the wise mixologist, a bartender keenly aware of the poison he’s dispensing, and he’s got a burning need to know.
But now he’s a recovering alcoholic and he owns a bar called the Esposito. He’s into jazz. He’s a bit of music nut. Managing the soundtrack at the bar is one of the ways that Darrow is trying to upgrade the reputation of the once-bleak watering hole, purchased with a trust fund windfall. He knows when Paquito Rivera needs be swapped out for Bill Evans.
Darrow is trying to upgrade the bar, and its clientele, the same way he’s trying to upgrade how he thinks about himself. His reputation. His last chance for “straightening out” is the management, in fact, of this bar. “All forty-four by fifty feet of it, sixteen-foot tin ceilings and the twelve metal stairs, same number as to the gallows, with a steel-pipe railing up to the street door.” There’s a triangular stage in the corner, “big enough for a trio as long as none of them was fat.”
Darrow has been sober for a year a half, but has positioned himself smack in the middle of temptation, pouring drinks for others. Darrow’s days as the owner of a pub started with a grand bargain. The deal was that his father’s bank would hire him if he could stay dry for two years and run the Esposito at a profit. But then dad died and he is left to wonder why he still cares. Elder Darrow is good at asking questions of himself.
One of Darrow’s regulars is a jazz-loving cop named Dan Burton who gets called away on a “sidewalk diver.” That suicide turns out to be a singer named Alison Somers. Darrow had been “utterly absorbed” with Somers for six months and the idea of her taking her own life doesn’t sit well.
As the motivation for amateur sleuths go, this is a nifty one. Darrow’s interests in Somers’ demise tangle with his own personal journey of discovery and the daily tests of his sobriety. His background, after all, could not have been more different than her youth in Roxbury, the poorest part of the city. How well did he know her? He had a pact with Somers—and assumed the pact remained despite the split. The deal was this: he would stay sober if she’d keep taking her anti-depressants. “But if I were ever going to be sure of that, I was going to have to find out for myself. Because I was afraid that if she had killed herself, then I would find my own reason to start drinking again, and then both of our stories would be over. If I didn’t do something, I was failing her memory and probably obliterating my own.”
With this great set-up, Solo Act follows Darrow as he begins asking questions and poking around. This isn’t a case of bar/restaurant turned Jack Reacher, it’s a case of one real man taking one step and then the next to get at some troubling and unresolved questions. Cass doesn’t push the pace, he lets the weight of Somers’ demise tug on Darrow’s soul.
Crafted for humanity and not designed to set pulses racing, Richard Cass chops in nifty, poetic snippets of Boston streets and alleys, noir-ish vibes and sounds (cue the sorrowful sax.) Cass intersperses Darrow’s trail with chapters that give us glimpses into the lives of the prescription pill bootleggers with their questionable plans and distrust in the ranks.
The Boston setting comes to life, but it’s a glitz-free view with back alley trash and dank smells. There’s a woman. And temptations. Failure lurks. One slip and Darrow know he won’t get credit for all the time he stayed clean. Darrow examines addiction from all angles. The investigation becomes a reflection of his own nature as much as finding out why Alison plunged to her death. In the end, Darrow is both bartender and barfly. He’s the wise mixologist, a bartender keenly aware of the poison he’s dispensing, and he’s got a burning need to know.
October 7, 2019
An interesting and sad continuation of the Elder Darrow series by Maine author Richard J. Cass. Good pacing and interesting characters. Looking forward to reading the third installment with Elder, a Harvard educated, alcoholic, bar owner.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews