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Toussaint Moore #1
Room to Swing (Annotated): The Pulp Noir Classic
1958 Edgar Award Winner. First appearance of Toussaint Moore, a black private investigator from New York, framed in his own city for a white man's murder. Moore ends up in a small Ohio town, close to the Kentucky border, trying to prove his own innocence and dealing the attitudes of the time. Fascinating novel, written by Lacy (Len Zinberg), a politically active author from the '30s whose knowledge of the culture is derived from his marriage to an African-American woman. Toussaint "Touie" Moore is considered the first credible black detective.
181 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1957
32 people are currently reading
265 people want to read
About the author
Ed Lacy
102 books10 followersEd Lacy was the pseudonymn of Leonard (Len) S Zinberg, who was born in New York City on 25 August 1925. After his mother and father had divorced and his mother remarried, he spent his early years living in relative affluence in the outskirts of Harlem.
During the late 1920s, he attended the College of the City of New York and then, in the 1930s he travelled throughout the United States where he had a variety of odd jobs, including working as a butcher, to support himself. In the early 1940s, he returned to New York, where he married and resided for the rest of his life.
Back in New York, he was a freelance writer and some of his early published work emerged in literary journals, such as a short story titled 'A Leaner' in 'Story Magazine' in November 1936. He was also a member of the League of American Writers, on whose committee, 'Keep America Out of War Committee', he served in January 1940 during the period of the Hitler-Stalin pact.
During World War II he was Private First Class Len Zinberg, serving with the Allies’ 1943 push into Fascist Italy. As PFC Zinberg he had a story titled 'Timing' in the men’s magazine, 'Sir!' in October 1942 and his early detective story 'Pay Telephone' appeared with James M. Cain in 'Popular Detective' in October 1943.
In addition, in the 25 October 1943 issue of 'The New Republic', he won a Soldiers' Prose competition and published a war sketch. His war sketches also appeared in 'Yank', whose motto was 'written by the men ... for men in the service'.
He was later promoted to Sergeant and as such he wrote the scathing satire 'Welcome Home' about a GI returning to his childhood home and a second 'Yank' article recorded the reception in Rome on VJ-Day where 'most people were merely smiling quietly.'
And it was probably the contributions he made to such as 'Yank' and 'The New Republic' that paved the way for his 18 New Yorker pieces, published between 1945 and 1947, which in turn were instrumental in promoting his professional writing career.
As a marketing ploy he adopted Steve April as a pseudonym and he was able to
sell more stories to markets such as 'Esquire' and 'Colliers'. As Steve April he also wrote text for comic strips such as Ranger Comics (1946) and Fight Comics (1951) and a novel, Exit 13 (1954).
The Ed Lacy pseudonymn came about when the original paperback (rather than historic reprints) boom hit America and this presented him with a more lucrative writing opportunity as he turned dedicatedly to detective fiction.
His first published crime and detective novel, 'The Woman Aroused', followed in 1951 and this began an output that totalled 28 novels as well as many short stories, his 'New York Times' obituary suggested 'many hundreds', until his early death in 1968. He also wrote on boxing, both in his novels and historically.
His early books often had lurid titles and he was known to remark, 'Yes, the title made me grit my teeth, too' and the often sexy cover art perhaps did not do these books the justice they deserved as professionally they were regarded as being well written and solidly plotted.
By the mid-1950s, however, he realised he had established a strong presence in the paperback original market so in 1955 he was able to sign with the more prestigious Harper to bring out his works in hardcover and 'The Best That Ever Did It' (1955) gave him his first solid recognition as the book went into a second printing.
Included in his novel output were three separate series of detective novels featuring Dave Wintino, Toussaint Moore and Lee Hayes. A white American himself, Lacy is credited with creating 'the first credible African-American PI' in American fiction, Toussaint "Touie" Marcus Moore. His first novel featuring Moore, 'Room to Swing' (1957) won the 1958 Edgar Award for Best Novel and this clearly marked the high point of his writing career.
His short stories continued to be reprinted in Ellery Queen's Magazine and in var
During the late 1920s, he attended the College of the City of New York and then, in the 1930s he travelled throughout the United States where he had a variety of odd jobs, including working as a butcher, to support himself. In the early 1940s, he returned to New York, where he married and resided for the rest of his life.
Back in New York, he was a freelance writer and some of his early published work emerged in literary journals, such as a short story titled 'A Leaner' in 'Story Magazine' in November 1936. He was also a member of the League of American Writers, on whose committee, 'Keep America Out of War Committee', he served in January 1940 during the period of the Hitler-Stalin pact.
During World War II he was Private First Class Len Zinberg, serving with the Allies’ 1943 push into Fascist Italy. As PFC Zinberg he had a story titled 'Timing' in the men’s magazine, 'Sir!' in October 1942 and his early detective story 'Pay Telephone' appeared with James M. Cain in 'Popular Detective' in October 1943.
In addition, in the 25 October 1943 issue of 'The New Republic', he won a Soldiers' Prose competition and published a war sketch. His war sketches also appeared in 'Yank', whose motto was 'written by the men ... for men in the service'.
He was later promoted to Sergeant and as such he wrote the scathing satire 'Welcome Home' about a GI returning to his childhood home and a second 'Yank' article recorded the reception in Rome on VJ-Day where 'most people were merely smiling quietly.'
And it was probably the contributions he made to such as 'Yank' and 'The New Republic' that paved the way for his 18 New Yorker pieces, published between 1945 and 1947, which in turn were instrumental in promoting his professional writing career.
As a marketing ploy he adopted Steve April as a pseudonym and he was able to
sell more stories to markets such as 'Esquire' and 'Colliers'. As Steve April he also wrote text for comic strips such as Ranger Comics (1946) and Fight Comics (1951) and a novel, Exit 13 (1954).
The Ed Lacy pseudonymn came about when the original paperback (rather than historic reprints) boom hit America and this presented him with a more lucrative writing opportunity as he turned dedicatedly to detective fiction.
His first published crime and detective novel, 'The Woman Aroused', followed in 1951 and this began an output that totalled 28 novels as well as many short stories, his 'New York Times' obituary suggested 'many hundreds', until his early death in 1968. He also wrote on boxing, both in his novels and historically.
His early books often had lurid titles and he was known to remark, 'Yes, the title made me grit my teeth, too' and the often sexy cover art perhaps did not do these books the justice they deserved as professionally they were regarded as being well written and solidly plotted.
By the mid-1950s, however, he realised he had established a strong presence in the paperback original market so in 1955 he was able to sign with the more prestigious Harper to bring out his works in hardcover and 'The Best That Ever Did It' (1955) gave him his first solid recognition as the book went into a second printing.
Included in his novel output were three separate series of detective novels featuring Dave Wintino, Toussaint Moore and Lee Hayes. A white American himself, Lacy is credited with creating 'the first credible African-American PI' in American fiction, Toussaint "Touie" Marcus Moore. His first novel featuring Moore, 'Room to Swing' (1957) won the 1958 Edgar Award for Best Novel and this clearly marked the high point of his writing career.
His short stories continued to be reprinted in Ellery Queen's Magazine and in var
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
November 21, 2022
Room to Swing was lauded by many as one of the first detective novels featuring an authentically portrayed black detective, propelling it to an Edgar award in 1958. Who am I to say, but it seemed genuine enough to me at least. I found it a fast paced murder whodunit imbued with verve, some interesting country and city settings and characters, and a gritty portrayal of the racial divide and the both subtle and overt racism that pervaded, and still pervades, society, even deep within one of the most liberal cities in the country. Lacy takes on a wide range of subjects touching on race, including police profiling, race betrayal and the inane racial/sociological fantasies of the perhaps well intentioned yet disconnected intellectual elite.
July 1, 2022
Ed Lacy’s 1957 Detective novel, Room to Swing, is a combination of a solo operator private eye novel and a classic innocent man on the run who thinks he can singlehandedly solve the murder he is on the run for. Best known as an Edgar Award winning portrayal of an African American Detective, Toussaint Moore, in a time when a trip to a small town was a journey to the edges of Jim Crow and he was expected to stay on his own side of town and often businesses were not throwing out the welcome mat. The narrative on these points does not feel forced, but natural and believable.
Lacy contrasts that experience with the phony patronage of New York intellectuals who wanted desperately to be seen as cool and hip and with it. Lacy also delivers a verdict on the lack of morality of the television and entertainment industry, including a network willing to let a hardened criminal walk free until the right time to turn him in because for the industry everything is just a publicity stunt.
Nevertheless, Lacy does a great job of weaving the racial elements in a compelling who done it mystery with Toussaint at times quite desperate to clear his name. Interestingly, Lacy doesn’t make his Detective a hardened sleuth in a fedora but a guy taking on an odd job because he is not sure if he will get a chance with the postal service. Years later, Lacy put out another mystery novel with Toussaint, but that one, Moment of Untruth (1964), was not as groundbreaking or as successful.
Lacy contrasts that experience with the phony patronage of New York intellectuals who wanted desperately to be seen as cool and hip and with it. Lacy also delivers a verdict on the lack of morality of the television and entertainment industry, including a network willing to let a hardened criminal walk free until the right time to turn him in because for the industry everything is just a publicity stunt.
Nevertheless, Lacy does a great job of weaving the racial elements in a compelling who done it mystery with Toussaint at times quite desperate to clear his name. Interestingly, Lacy doesn’t make his Detective a hardened sleuth in a fedora but a guy taking on an odd job because he is not sure if he will get a chance with the postal service. Years later, Lacy put out another mystery novel with Toussaint, but that one, Moment of Untruth (1964), was not as groundbreaking or as successful.
March 24, 2015
It's a shame that this 1958 Edgar Award-winner for Best Novel isn't more popular than it is. It's a solid piece of detective fiction and one of the first novels to feature a black private detective as the main character. It's sort of a forerunner to the popular Easy Rawlins series. In the book, we follow Toussaint "Touie" Moore, a small-time detective who's clients mostly stem from the "black" jobs that his white colleagues throw at him. He's trying to make the transition from being a club bouncer to running a legit private dick business. So when a TV executive approaches him with a high paying job to simply keep tabs on a criminal before he's nabbed on an interactive, true-crime "reality" show, he jumps at the opportunity. But things go sour when the guy ends up with his skull bashed in and Touie is framed for the rap!
Toussaint is completely atypical of your classic standard private dick. While most popular fiction detectives are usually jaded and cynical, Touie is bright-eyed and hopeful, making big plans for his new detective career, while his high-maintenance girlfriend Sybil threatens to dash his dreams. She calls it a dead-end career and pressures him to accept the square post office job that is offered to him early on in the novel. All of this makes his character very relatable and less of a brooding pessimist that many hard-boiled detectives turn out to be. The mystery is enjoyable, the TV show element is surprisingly modern and ahead of it's time, and the racial commentary is never forced and well-integrated. This is a good read that should be better known in the crime genre.
Toussaint is completely atypical of your classic standard private dick. While most popular fiction detectives are usually jaded and cynical, Touie is bright-eyed and hopeful, making big plans for his new detective career, while his high-maintenance girlfriend Sybil threatens to dash his dreams. She calls it a dead-end career and pressures him to accept the square post office job that is offered to him early on in the novel. All of this makes his character very relatable and less of a brooding pessimist that many hard-boiled detectives turn out to be. The mystery is enjoyable, the TV show element is surprisingly modern and ahead of it's time, and the racial commentary is never forced and well-integrated. This is a good read that should be better known in the crime genre.
August 19, 2012
The personification of the hardboiled private detective novel heightened by a racial dynamic woven into the very modern investigation (despite the original publication in 1957). For Toussaint Moore, being a PI is hard enough; struggling to make ends meet, involved in a non-committal relationship with a prostitute with who he believes is marriage material, in the spotlight in relation to the murder of a white guy he was tailing, and last of all – being a Negro in a racially ruled environment.
The backwardly perception of the darker skinned PI by police and townsfolk alike presented Toussaint added complication to clear his name, yet remain billable to prospective clients. Ending up in a small Ohio town on the search for the backstory of the deceased, he discovers some interesting facts which may lead to his innocence or condemn him to death if whispered to the wrong person.
The plot, fashionably modern for today’s market is based on reality TV with Toussaint tailing a criminal for the purpose of ratings for a television network who plan to make the bust on live TV. However, the relatively easy money soon becomes tainted with blood when the white male is brutally murdered. From then on it, the hardboiled turns whodunit with the outcome confrontational and somewhat Hollywood which actually works well with the overall theme of the story.
‘Room to Swing’ is an engrossing look at the typical hard-knock PI further complicated by constant racial vilification. The linear plot is straightforward with enough suspects to keep the reader guessing despite the obvious conclusion. This is a great read, of which all fans of the genre will enjoy - 5 stars.
The backwardly perception of the darker skinned PI by police and townsfolk alike presented Toussaint added complication to clear his name, yet remain billable to prospective clients. Ending up in a small Ohio town on the search for the backstory of the deceased, he discovers some interesting facts which may lead to his innocence or condemn him to death if whispered to the wrong person.
The plot, fashionably modern for today’s market is based on reality TV with Toussaint tailing a criminal for the purpose of ratings for a television network who plan to make the bust on live TV. However, the relatively easy money soon becomes tainted with blood when the white male is brutally murdered. From then on it, the hardboiled turns whodunit with the outcome confrontational and somewhat Hollywood which actually works well with the overall theme of the story.
‘Room to Swing’ is an engrossing look at the typical hard-knock PI further complicated by constant racial vilification. The linear plot is straightforward with enough suspects to keep the reader guessing despite the obvious conclusion. This is a great read, of which all fans of the genre will enjoy - 5 stars.
July 4, 2012
I enjoyed the book, and therefore my only beef is a minor one, but bothered me as a lifeling Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky resident. Lacy seems to have written this book, of which a large portion takes place in Ohio, without ever glancing at an Ohio map to refresh his memory. When Moore takes a little drive into Kentucky to make a phone call in hopes that the police will be confused if they're tracing the calls his girlfriend receives, he drives along for a while and has to stop and ask the way to Kentucky. Well, it turns out he's already there! Now, it's just about impossible to cross from Ohio into Kentucky, at any point along the border, because the border is a little river called the OHIO! It's big and hard to miss.
There, I just had to say it.
There, I just had to say it.
October 13, 2011
ROOM TO SWING won the 1958 Edgar for best novel and introduced the first credible black private investigator. Toussaint "Touie" Moore. Based in New York City and is the usual PI, always short of money, but loves what he's doing.
He's found a windfall when a young white woman contacts him about some shadowing work for a new TV show, a fifties version of cops. She wants him to keep tabs on a criminal slated for the third episode. Just make sure he doesn't skip before the airing. A month's work at fifty a day.
The gag is the sponsor is a pharmaceutical company and if viewers send in two box tops, they get a badge that makes them eligible for twice the reward of a non-buyer. They have a stooge set up to tuen in the criminal for the reward and a lot of publicity.
A sweet deal.
Until his office receives a frantic call one night for him to meet at the criminal's apartment at exactly midnight. Wondering how it had blown up, he shows up to find the apartment turned over, the inhabitant dead, and a cop suddenly in the door with a gun on him.
He realizes then that he's been set up.
When the cop raises the gun to pistol whip him, Touie slugs him and bolts.
Ed Lacy lived most of his adult life in Harlem and was married to a black woman. The story is infused with things a black person went through during the times, from the "boy" to the patronizing attitude of the liberals, to something a black friend informed me about. That light skinned blacks tended to look down on dark blacks.
And a damn good mystery as well. I can see why this one won the Edgar.
He's found a windfall when a young white woman contacts him about some shadowing work for a new TV show, a fifties version of cops. She wants him to keep tabs on a criminal slated for the third episode. Just make sure he doesn't skip before the airing. A month's work at fifty a day.
The gag is the sponsor is a pharmaceutical company and if viewers send in two box tops, they get a badge that makes them eligible for twice the reward of a non-buyer. They have a stooge set up to tuen in the criminal for the reward and a lot of publicity.
A sweet deal.
Until his office receives a frantic call one night for him to meet at the criminal's apartment at exactly midnight. Wondering how it had blown up, he shows up to find the apartment turned over, the inhabitant dead, and a cop suddenly in the door with a gun on him.
He realizes then that he's been set up.
When the cop raises the gun to pistol whip him, Touie slugs him and bolts.
Ed Lacy lived most of his adult life in Harlem and was married to a black woman. The story is infused with things a black person went through during the times, from the "boy" to the patronizing attitude of the liberals, to something a black friend informed me about. That light skinned blacks tended to look down on dark blacks.
And a damn good mystery as well. I can see why this one won the Edgar.
September 14, 2012
Great late 50's mystery novel with a believable African-American protagonist written by a white guy. The LGBT characters were too progressive for its time and too dated for today, but at least the lesbian couple is sympathetic.
May 28, 2025
Room to Swing has been called the first hard-boiled, noir novel featuring a Black detective, which embodies the thought that there are noir elements in many novels presenting Black lives. See Chester Himes and his standalone novels, even apart from the Harlem Cycle series. The works of Wright and Ellison have their hard-boiled and noir moments. Ed Lacy helped create the possibility of a noirish, hard-boiled Black detective and may have paved the way for Walter Mosley and S.A. Cosby. This excellent novel was far better than expected for a writer that I'd never heard of before. The story adds an interesting issue in that everywhere private eye Toussaint Marcus Moore goes he doesn't know if people are reacting to him as a stranger, a detective, or as a Black man. A detective needs to be able to travel anywhere and for Moore that's not necessarily true, he always has to be conscious of how he'll be perceived. The novel is streamlined and tight, with little wasted space and the author respects the reader (which is always appreciated). The characters are written realistically and empathetically. There's even a lesbian couple in the book, also treated sympathetically. Ed Lacy (pseudonym of Leonard S. Zinberg (1911-68) was mostly a pulp writer of paperback originals from 1951 to 1969. It's a shame there was only one sequel (Moment of Untruth (1964)), which I must now dig out. [4½★]
January 11, 2015
Touissant Marcus Moore is a down on his luck, loner, former soldier and aspiring private eye who is barely scraping by with the chump change he earns from hand me down skip-tracing jobs and stints as a department store anti-theft detective on the weekends. What keeps Touissant from properly pursuing his ambitions is that he is a black man in 1957. His lighter complexioned, quasi-girlfriend, Sybil, will only marry him if he settles down and accepts a post office job. Touissant feels that doing so would be the same as selling out, Uncle Tom style, so he stalls and doesn’t commit. Touissant suspects that Sybil doesn’t really love him. She actually has an aversion to the idea of marrying a darker complexioned man. Although she will forego this detail so she can be financially secure and attain some kind of higher social status.
Touissant is approached by a publicity person for a television studio. The studio is doing a show similar to America’s Most Wanted. Touissant is hired to stalk and keep tabs on the subject of the show- Thomas, a criminal wanted for rape. Eventually, Thomas ends up murdered, Touissant is framed for it and he ends up travelling south chasing a lead in an attempt to clear his name. There he encounters even more racism. Also, being a brash, 6’5’’ muscular black man driving a Jaguar (remember it’s 1957) doesn't help him be inconspicuous.
I've just touched upon a few of the struggles in this story. This is a great detective story written by Len Zinberg (using the pseudonym Ed Lacy). Zinberg was Jewish, lived in Harlem and was married to a black woman. His stories were ahead of their times and they read like if they could have been written a few years ago. This story also incorporates electronic surveillance, which at the time was in its infancy.
Touissant is approached by a publicity person for a television studio. The studio is doing a show similar to America’s Most Wanted. Touissant is hired to stalk and keep tabs on the subject of the show- Thomas, a criminal wanted for rape. Eventually, Thomas ends up murdered, Touissant is framed for it and he ends up travelling south chasing a lead in an attempt to clear his name. There he encounters even more racism. Also, being a brash, 6’5’’ muscular black man driving a Jaguar (remember it’s 1957) doesn't help him be inconspicuous.
I've just touched upon a few of the struggles in this story. This is a great detective story written by Len Zinberg (using the pseudonym Ed Lacy). Zinberg was Jewish, lived in Harlem and was married to a black woman. His stories were ahead of their times and they read like if they could have been written a few years ago. This story also incorporates electronic surveillance, which at the time was in its infancy.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 8, 2022
Consider Jack Reacher series on Amazon Video…Reacher comes into every situation with confidence and a Superman level of abilities. Even when put in Jail it is no problem because he knows by wit and brawn he will prevail, and he does. He is unstoppable and always wins and outsmarts the other guys, and you always know he will win in the end. That is his deal.
Toussaint “Touie” Marcus Moore may not be the ANTI-Jack Reacher but aside from being a strong guy this NOTHING like Reacher. And even though the Reacher series was not horrible, reading about Touie was really refreshing to not know how it was going to work out. You figure he will come out OK but still, it looks pretty bad for him most of the time.
So read this and know it isn’t going to be Private Detective Kal-el “Superman” from Krypton, this is a human who as to put up with a lot of crap just to drive through town.
Also much interesting slang, for example
Actually he’s a rough oscar and far from stupid—as a dick. I get a bang out of the way he speaks in grunts—as if talking was a waste of time. - Location: 540
ofays - Location: 834
blue pajamas and blue mules — Location: 1,408
As he dropped his gray Homburg on his head - Location: 2,176
Bobby slipped into a tailored cloth coat and bebop cap - Location: 2,358
Toussaint “Touie” Marcus Moore may not be the ANTI-Jack Reacher but aside from being a strong guy this NOTHING like Reacher. And even though the Reacher series was not horrible, reading about Touie was really refreshing to not know how it was going to work out. You figure he will come out OK but still, it looks pretty bad for him most of the time.
So read this and know it isn’t going to be Private Detective Kal-el “Superman” from Krypton, this is a human who as to put up with a lot of crap just to drive through town.
Also much interesting slang, for example
Actually he’s a rough oscar and far from stupid—as a dick. I get a bang out of the way he speaks in grunts—as if talking was a waste of time. - Location: 540
ofays - Location: 834
blue pajamas and blue mules — Location: 1,408
As he dropped his gray Homburg on his head - Location: 2,176
Bobby slipped into a tailored cloth coat and bebop cap - Location: 2,358
March 29, 2008
This was the hardest to obtain of the Edgar winners so far. The protagonist is a struggling African-American private eye whose girlfriend wants him to give up and get a job in the Post Office. He's almost ready to do that when he gets a job that lands him in big trouble. He must leave familiar New York City for a Jim Crow town in southern Ohio to solve the mystery and keep himself from being framed for the murder. Let's just say he learns a lot about himself and other things. It's well worth reading.
June 29, 2011
This was a terrific mystery. Touie is a black private eye, which causes all sorts of problems for him in the fifties among people who aren't quite so eager to drop racism from their lives. I found this interesting for a couple of reasons. First, the cover has two whites on it; apparently the publishers at the time felt like the book buying public wasn't ready for a black protagonist. Also, as forward thinking as the book was at the time, there's still a little bit if homophobia present. Still, I thought it was about as good a mystery as you could write.
January 6, 2023
[Imported automatically from my blog. Some formatting there may not have translated here.]
For some reason, in April 2022, I became aware the Kindle edition of this book was on sale at Amazon for 99¢. (It's $2.99 as I type.) It won the Edgar Award for best novel back in 1958. The garish cover said "The Noir Classic"! The Amazon page said "The Pulp Noir Classic"! A totally garish cover! All that made it an irresistible buy.
Unfortunately, it was one of those "wish I'd liked it better" reads for me. Two stars ("it was ok") at Goodreads.
It is claimed to be the first appearance of a black private eye in fiction, Toussaint Moore. As the book opens Toussaint has driven his old Jaguar to the small town of Bingston, Ohio. It's the mid-1950s, and the townspeople, as he reports it, "stared at me like I'd stepped out of a flying saucer." He immediately gets hassled by a local cop.
He's on a mission, it turns out, to try to clear himself of a murder rap back in his New York City home. He'd been hired by a reality TV show ("You - Detective!") to keep tabs on a rape suspect who's going to be one of the show's featured criminals. But the suspect gets killed, Toussaint gets framed, slugs a white cop… and call him mint jelly, because he's on the lam.
That's not Toussaint's only problem; his girlfriend Sybil despises his detective gig, and wants him to grab a stable job at the Post Office. His job requires him to navigate around pervasive racism and the shallowness and sexual proclivities of showbiz types.
"Ed Lacy" is a pseudonym for Leonard Zinberg, a white Jewish Communist married to a black woman. He was relatively prolific back in the mid-20th century, and is nowadays relatively obscure. (This novel's copyright wasn't renewed, which is why you can find multiple editions over at Amazon and elsewhere.) The prose here is Spillane-like, for better or worse.
September 1, 2025
Although this mystery starring a black detective was written in 1957 by a white male married to a black woman who lived in Harlem, a diverse ethic community at that time, the reader can easily view it as the precursor to Walter Mosley’s Easy Rowling novels, or the Academy Award winning film, The Heat of the Night. The story contains themes and elements that characterized both. It also captures the zeitgeist with respect to how Blacks were treated and viewed at that time.
The story is fast paced. It grabs the reader’s interest from the opening scene, and keeps their attention although much of its plot, and many of its characters are tropes and stereotypes drawn from other stories and films, that commonly appear in the detective genre. However, it contains some interesting twists that were not normally found in mysteries during that era, including a compassionate portrayal of members of the LGBT community rather than the demeaning stereotypic descriptions that were common.
The ending is a bit pat. The key scenes appear to be taken out of a B movie, or a TV detective show broadcast at that time. They are followed by bit of philosophizing which ties up the lose ends.
All in all this a fun read. It is a good way to pass the time on a lazy day.
The story is fast paced. It grabs the reader’s interest from the opening scene, and keeps their attention although much of its plot, and many of its characters are tropes and stereotypes drawn from other stories and films, that commonly appear in the detective genre. However, it contains some interesting twists that were not normally found in mysteries during that era, including a compassionate portrayal of members of the LGBT community rather than the demeaning stereotypic descriptions that were common.
The ending is a bit pat. The key scenes appear to be taken out of a B movie, or a TV detective show broadcast at that time. They are followed by bit of philosophizing which ties up the lose ends.
All in all this a fun read. It is a good way to pass the time on a lazy day.
April 13, 2025
I am a fan of older mysteries and when I heard about this one it sounded like a must read. The fact that the main character was a black detective during the 1950’s meant that the “hero” of the story was going to be also a victim as well. And indeed he was. The story is told in various times. Now, Three Days Ago, Two, One then back to now. The racism Toussaint Moore had to put up with day in and day out to get through the day was exhausting just to read. It really gave a searing insight how racism is a constant assault. On the other hand, he needed to figure out who killed a man and why because he was played and considered the main suspect. (This is not a spoiler.). The fact that he slugged a policeman to get away, just made things worse for him.
Moore may not have been doing a lot of technical detecting but bit by bit he worked out the situation. It also laid bare desperation and sadness of the poor in the Midwest. At first you feel like Moore may never get to the bottom of it then the link he needs happens and from then on it’s full steam ahead. It’s not a long book, but certainly a richly told story. Worth the read.
Moore may not have been doing a lot of technical detecting but bit by bit he worked out the situation. It also laid bare desperation and sadness of the poor in the Midwest. At first you feel like Moore may never get to the bottom of it then the link he needs happens and from then on it’s full steam ahead. It’s not a long book, but certainly a richly told story. Worth the read.
March 30, 2022
Edgar-winning novel from 1957 in which a white author writes a black male private detective in first-person POV.
The plot itself isn't much--the murder is solved far too easily, with almost no deductive work to speak of, and a confession is extracted so quickly and easily it reminded me of how Agatha Christie's villains cave as soon as Poirot presents them with his theory of the crime--haven't these killers ever heard of shutting their mouths and lawyering up?
But nearly every page has a description of the discrimination Toussaint faces as a black man trying to live and work as a private detective in New York City and in small-town Ohio. Apparently, Lacy was married to a black woman, which may have helped him get a feeling of the levels and kinds of racist challenges his character would face. Or maybe he just did the work: reading and talking to as many African Americans as he needed in order to get into the character.
As a white man myself, I can't really speak to whether Lacy was successful in his representation. But it was interesting to read.
The plot itself isn't much--the murder is solved far too easily, with almost no deductive work to speak of, and a confession is extracted so quickly and easily it reminded me of how Agatha Christie's villains cave as soon as Poirot presents them with his theory of the crime--haven't these killers ever heard of shutting their mouths and lawyering up?
But nearly every page has a description of the discrimination Toussaint faces as a black man trying to live and work as a private detective in New York City and in small-town Ohio. Apparently, Lacy was married to a black woman, which may have helped him get a feeling of the levels and kinds of racist challenges his character would face. Or maybe he just did the work: reading and talking to as many African Americans as he needed in order to get into the character.
As a white man myself, I can't really speak to whether Lacy was successful in his representation. But it was interesting to read.
April 15, 2023
Edgar award winning mystery from the 1950’s. Very interesting read, not so much for the story itself. Lacy seemed to be trying too hard to sound like a black man when, in truth, he was a white Jewish man. He wrote lots of Toussant Moore mysteries. I don’t think I will read another one though. I couldn’t feel any empathy for any of the characters and the story seemed forced. I must say, though, Toussant (narrator and protagonist) sounded so much like Denzel Washington in Devil in a Blue Dress every time he has a spot of dialogue!
April 10, 2023
A pleasant run-of-the-mill noir mystery, made interesting by being written in the late 1950s about a a black detective in NY City. It gives something of the flavor of life for black men during these turbulent times. Not a deep psychological novel and the mystery itself is a little less noir than I was hoping for; the protagonist makes an uninteresting choice towards the end. But a great snapshot of a point in time and good bedtime reading.
December 15, 2023
I discovered there's just two novel by this author in print. I loved it, it's intriguing and a great description of an era and how a black PI lived.
A well plotted, multilayered, and solid story that kept me guessing and reading.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine
A well plotted, multilayered, and solid story that kept me guessing and reading.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine
February 3, 2025
This was a fun and well written book. The characters were engaging abs dynamic while the settings played a stable background to all that was playing out in the story. A great, short mystery read.
I recommend.
I recommend.
May 24, 2017
able police
April 18, 2019
1958 Edgar winner which I had read previously. It's a good hard detective pulpy kind of read. The lead character is a New York City private detective framed for murder.
January 28, 2020
Choppy, poor flow, difficult read
Want to read
March 25, 2022Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss.
Read
September 10, 2022Scrappy.
January 18, 2025
This book was given to me with “Compliments of the Library of Congress Publishing Office”. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, including all the historical footnotes. So fun to revisit the ‘50’s and now crimes were solved before cell phones.
March 18, 2025
The difficulties that a black private eye had doing his job.
April 23, 2025
Although I was interested enough to complete the book, it felt basic. The resolution was... weaksauce.
April 27, 2021
This is a 1957 book written by American writer Ed Lacy (real name Leonard Zinberg). The book won the 1958 Edgar award for Best Novel. This book is probably the first US detective novel written by a Caucasian writer featuring an African American private investigator. Lacy’s understanding of the African American point of view is derived from his being married to an African American woman.
The plot is interesting. However, I find sometimes Lacy drags on too much and makes the book slower going than it should. Overall, I would give it a 3.5 Star. One thing the book does well is to highlight the widespread and institutionalized racial discrimination against African Americans in the 1950s. By splitting the setting of the story in both New York City and a fictional mostly white small town in Ohio call Bingston, Lacy was able to compare and contrast the different types of discrimination and difficulties facing African-American lives in 1950s in big vs small towns. Issues like segregation and white businesses refusing to serve black customers are also explored. Overall, the book is a good period piece to reflect racial situations in the 1950s United States.
The story is about a black private investigator Toussaint (Touie) Marcus Moore, who is just starting out on his PI career in New York City. One day, he was hired by Kay Robbens to follow a white man for a few weeks. The person Touie were supposed to follow is called Richard Tutt (his real name is Robert Thomas). Kay works for a TV show production company called Central Telecasting and they are producing a crime TV show that involves rehashing some old little-known unsolved crimes and after it has been aired, a prearranged “viewer” (a stooge) would get a reward when he or she calls in to solve the crime. The first episodes is about an escaped criminal called Robert Thomas. Six years ago Robert was accused of committing rape and assault in an Ohio town called Bingston. Robert escaped from jail and disappeared. Kay told Touie they have found Robert in New York City and want Touie to loosely tail Robert until they are ready for the show to air and then set up the stooge viewer to call in for the pinch. While Touie was doing his job, one day he got a message purportedly from Kay asking him to meet her in Robert’s apartment at midnight. When Touie arrived, he found Robert has been murdered. Just when Touie discovered the body, a cop (who was responding to an anonymous tip) walked in and caught Touie with the murdered man. Touie managed to escape. Now convinced somebody is trying to frame him, Touie realized he had to solve the crime himself. He reasoned that Robert’s death probably has something to do with his past life in Bingston. Touie then travelled to Bingston and conducted his own investigation. He finally discovered Robert is a distant cousin to Steve McDonald, who is the writer working on the TV show featuring Robert Thomas. Touie then got went back to New York and convinced Kay to cooperate with him and set Steve up for a confession. Steve, not knowing that he was being secretly taped, confessed to Kay he has to kill Robert because once the show aired, the fact that Steve is a relative to Robert will be exposed, which would put a blemish on Steve’s reputation and might even end his blossoming TV show writing career. Steve then tried to frame Touie by getting Touie to arrive at the crime scene at the same time as the cop. Ultimately, Steve was arrested and Touie was cleared.
The plot is interesting. However, I find sometimes Lacy drags on too much and makes the book slower going than it should. Overall, I would give it a 3.5 Star. One thing the book does well is to highlight the widespread and institutionalized racial discrimination against African Americans in the 1950s. By splitting the setting of the story in both New York City and a fictional mostly white small town in Ohio call Bingston, Lacy was able to compare and contrast the different types of discrimination and difficulties facing African-American lives in 1950s in big vs small towns. Issues like segregation and white businesses refusing to serve black customers are also explored. Overall, the book is a good period piece to reflect racial situations in the 1950s United States.
The story is about a black private investigator Toussaint (Touie) Marcus Moore, who is just starting out on his PI career in New York City. One day, he was hired by Kay Robbens to follow a white man for a few weeks. The person Touie were supposed to follow is called Richard Tutt (his real name is Robert Thomas). Kay works for a TV show production company called Central Telecasting and they are producing a crime TV show that involves rehashing some old little-known unsolved crimes and after it has been aired, a prearranged “viewer” (a stooge) would get a reward when he or she calls in to solve the crime. The first episodes is about an escaped criminal called Robert Thomas. Six years ago Robert was accused of committing rape and assault in an Ohio town called Bingston. Robert escaped from jail and disappeared. Kay told Touie they have found Robert in New York City and want Touie to loosely tail Robert until they are ready for the show to air and then set up the stooge viewer to call in for the pinch. While Touie was doing his job, one day he got a message purportedly from Kay asking him to meet her in Robert’s apartment at midnight. When Touie arrived, he found Robert has been murdered. Just when Touie discovered the body, a cop (who was responding to an anonymous tip) walked in and caught Touie with the murdered man. Touie managed to escape. Now convinced somebody is trying to frame him, Touie realized he had to solve the crime himself. He reasoned that Robert’s death probably has something to do with his past life in Bingston. Touie then travelled to Bingston and conducted his own investigation. He finally discovered Robert is a distant cousin to Steve McDonald, who is the writer working on the TV show featuring Robert Thomas. Touie then got went back to New York and convinced Kay to cooperate with him and set Steve up for a confession. Steve, not knowing that he was being secretly taped, confessed to Kay he has to kill Robert because once the show aired, the fact that Steve is a relative to Robert will be exposed, which would put a blemish on Steve’s reputation and might even end his blossoming TV show writing career. Steve then tried to frame Touie by getting Touie to arrive at the crime scene at the same time as the cop. Ultimately, Steve was arrested and Touie was cleared.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 25, 2011
As part of My Big Fat Reading Project, I read the major award winning books from each year. The Edgar Award for mystery writing began in 1954. Aside from Raymond Chandler in 1955, none of the winning authors have stood the test of time. I had not heard of Ed Lacy before though he had a good reputation in the 1950s and has recently been brought back into reprint.
Ed Lacy is a pseudonym for crime writer Leonard Zinberg, a New Yorker, professional writer, political leftist and all around character. His lifelong interest in African American culture and leftist politics stemmed from his Jewish upbringing in 1920s Manhattan, on the fringes of Harlem. His wife was African American and many of his early stories concerned racial injustice.
In 1951, Zinberg published his first mystery as Ed Lacy, but it was Room to Swing with the first credible African American PI which brought him critical praise and the Edgar Award in 1958.
Touissant "Touie" Marcus Moore is living on the edge in a small apartment in Harlem, which doubles as his office, trying to make it as a private investigator. On a day when his funds are particularly low, he is lured into a TV promotional operation by a hot redhead who considers herself "sympathetic" to Negroes. Next thing he knows, Marcus is a murder suspect and must find the actual murderer in order to save himself.
He follows the trail of evidence to a small southern Ohio town. Lacy gets the Jim Crow elements of 1950s Ohio just right while he throws in some excellent Raymond Chandler style metaphors. A nice little love story develops in Ohio and bubbles beneath the surface of a fine mystery with some unusual quirks.
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