Sidewalk Saint

Foggy Moskowitz #4

by Phillip DePoy

Amateur sleuth and Child Protective Officer Foggy Moscowitz must find a missing girl with a special gift in this latest noir mystery set in Florida.

Florida, 1976. Foggy Moscowitz knows he’s having a bad night when he wakes to find a gun pressed to his face. Nelson Roan has busted out of his prison cell and broken into Foggy’s house, demanding Foggy finds his eleven-year-old daughter, Etta. But as Foggy searches for Etta, it seems her father is not the only person who wants her Canadian mobsters, crazy New York Irishmen, the FBI and even the Seminole elite are all on her trail. But why?

Etta has a special gift – and she knows something that certain people would go to any lengths to make sure stays buried in her memory. As Foggy helps Etta to reveal what she knows, he uncovers a sinister plot with tentacles that stretch further and higher than he could ever have imagined . . .

224 pages, Hardcover

Published December 3, 2019

About the author

Phillip DePoy has published short fiction, poetry, and criticism in Story, The Southern Poetry Review, Xanadu, Yankee, and other magazines. He is currently the creative director of the Maurice Townsend Center for the Performing Arts at the State University of West Georgia, and has had many productions of his plays at regional theaters throughout the south. He is the recipient of numerous grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the state of Georgia, the Georgia Council for the Arts, the Arts Festival of Atlanta, the South Carolina Council for the Arts, etc. He composed the scores for the regional Angels in America and other productions and has played in a numerous jazz and folk bands. In his work as a folklorist he has collected songs and stories throughout Georgia and has worked with John Burrison, the foremost folklorist in the south and with Joseph Cambell.

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sidewalk Saint is the fourth book in a quirky offbeat crime fiction series. Foggy Moskowitz, a former Brooklyn car thief, now a Florida Child Protective Services Officer, with a nose for trouble and a penchant for getting things right. An escaped convict with a gun looking for his daughter, Etta, a precocious puzzle-solver who half the underworld us after for some reason that is perplexing. A bunch of hoods from New York and Montreal at odds with each other. A ghost following Foggy. A Seminole Native American who seems to know things before they happen. It is all packaged with a quirky tongue-in-cheek narrative, although solving this mystery is a lot like untwisting a pretzel.

Many thanks to the publisher for providing a copy for review.

[LJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

First Sentence: It doesn't take long to wake up when there's a gun in your face.

Nelson Roan demands that Child Protective Services agent Foggy Moscowitz find his 11-year-old daughter Etta. He's not the only one looking for her. It seems Etta has perfect memory and knows something she shouldn't. How do you convince a bunch of bad guys that not even Etta doesn't know what that is? It's up to Foggy to find her and keep her safe until he can figure out how to neutralize the danger to Etta permanently.

Talk about an effective hook. This is not a book where you read a paragraph for a quick try, planning to sit down with it later. This is a book where you read the first sentence and keep reading. The case is intriguing. One wants to know where it's going, and the plot twists start very early on.

DePoy not only captures your attention, but his unique descriptions bring the characters to life--"His skin was grey, and his eyes were the saddest song you ever heard, times ten." His use of language is wonderful--"The camp seemed to have a life of its own. It wasn't just the leftover smells, cook fires, swamp herbs and tobacco. It was like an eerie echo was still reverberating around the concrete walls. Like old conversations were still hanging in the air. Like ghosts were wandering free."

As for Foggy, DePoy informs readers of who he is, his background, and how he got where he is and eventually, the meaning if the book's title. Foggy's philosophy may make one think--"I was always a big believer in is. Not should be, or ought to. Is. That's very powerful, because it is the only reality. Whatever it is you were doing, that was the only thing that truly existed. Everything else was a fantasy." Foggy also makes an insightful self-observation--"To me that was the weird thing about having a reputation as a good guy. Too many people expected me to be good. Which I wasn't especially. I was just a guy trying to make up for what he'd done wrong." A nice explanation of the title helps one to understand Foggy better.

DePoy's characters, on both sides of the law, are far from ordinary, which is a large part of the appeal. They are quirky, interesting, capable and surprising. His children are refreshingly smart, capable, and astute--"You know you're too smart for your own good, right?' I suggested. 'Oh, yes,' she said. That's my main problem." He really does write some of the best dialogue.

There is a nice element of mysticism. It doesn't overwhelm the plot, but instead, it adds another interesting layer too it. In a way, it balances the bad stuff. The turns this story takes are more dizzying than a state fair teacup ride. Not just any author can come up with a plot point to destroy a mobster and his business via a phone call

"Sidewalk Saint" is a fun, twisty book filled with quirky, unique characters. There's violence, but minimal on-page death, but the story also gives one plenty of ideas to consider.

SIDEWALK SAINT – G+
CPS officer-Foggy Moscowitz-Florida-Contemp
DePoy, Phillip – 4th in series
Severn House – Dec 2019

[Judy Lesley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and Severn House Publishing for an e-galley of this novel.

The Foggy Moscowitz series has always been a little "off-beat" and I was fine with that because none of it was carried too far and it was easy to just chalk it all up to strange chance. With this fourth book in the series I don't think I'm as comfortable doing that any longer. I always thought there was an invisible line drawn in the sand that represented reality and strangeness and as long as Foggy only put his toe over the line once in a while I could fully accept what was going on. So now Foggy has done the broad jump over that line and things aren't as comfortable for me any more. Should this now be considered a fantasy detective series? Well, probably so, at least by me and that will have to have an impact on whether I decide to continue with the series.

Foggy is a car thief paying his personal penitence for something he did while stealing a car in Brooklyn. He landed in Fry's Bay, Florida as a state employee in Child Protective Services. Just don't ask how. He takes his job seriously and has helped with some difficult cases involving children so it's not altogether strange for him to be "requested" at gun point to find a man's missing daughter. Etta Roan is eleven years old and was taken into the Child Protective Services department because her mother had died and her father was in prison. Now Etta's father can't find her and he wants Foggy to get on the job. It seems Etta has some highly developed memory function and lots of people want to know what bits and pieces she picked up while overhearing conversations between her father and his mob associates.

The time is 1976. There are so many unbelievable things I had to swallow in this story that it took all the charm and wit right out of the narrative. What had previously been an interesting quirk or two for Foggy and most of the other characters became things I could only believe if I moved this whole story into the fantasy genre. And my brain just kept shouting the whole time that this was an 11 year old child.....she wasn't 25 so why were they all treating her like she was? A shotgun toting waitress in a diner who fired that shotgun INSIDE that packed diner and didn't kill anybody? Really? She fired that shotgun? And the improbable, the unbelievable and the fantastical just kept on coming. I don't know, maybe 3 stars is too many.

[Barbara Cromer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Phillip DePoy's books. Very quirky.

[Max · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in Florida in 1976, Foggy Moskowitz has fled New York City after a life of petty crime to work in Florida's agency to help children. He quickly gets involved in the search for an 11 year old girl, who is also being pursued by her father, who has escaped from jail, the Mob from Brooklyn, and the Mob from Montreal. After a lot of searching and scrapes, Foggy finds the girl and looks to protect her while figuring out why she is a target, and also to reunite her with her father. What works in this book is the Foggy character, who is cool and clever and doesn't take himself to seriously. The other characters are entertaining and the dialogue is sharp and smart. What doesn't work is the plot, which could have used a little copy editing, as wild guesses turn out to be dead on and people show up out of nowhere. Also, Foggy has relationship with the local Seminole tribe, who have truly mystical properties and abilities. If you can suspend all disbelief, the ride is entertaining.

[Philip · Rating 5 out of 5]

Foggy and nefarious characters, hoi polloi, Seminoles, and last but not least a very famous peanut farmer. A great match up with Foggy and Etta make quite a pair. Excellent writing and creativity by Phillip Depoy. He writes with pizzazz that hold a reader like a magnet. A little history in all his Foggy Moscowitz serials Brooklyn, Montreal, Oklahoma make a profound read. Read every single one with much delight. Pure entertainment.

[John Sargent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quirky but enjoyable

[Linda Branham · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoy Phillip DePoy’s writing. Foggy is not one of his best characters but he has grown on me. This was a great book. I think Fever Devlin was my favorite character 😊

[Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Foggy👑