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Standalone: A Dickie Cornish Mystery
Dickie Cornish, Washington, DC street denizen turned unlicensed private investigator, is forced at gunpoint to track down the daughter of an ex-con, setting up a chain of events that unleashes a war within the corrupt police force, exposes shocking conduct in child services, and unearths a secret that threatens to tear the nation’s capitol apart. The second book in the Dickie Cornish mystery series, STANDALONE is a must-read for fans of S. A. Cosby, George Pelecanos, and Walter Mosley.
It’s been over year since that bleak Christmas when a rich man peeled homeless, drug-addled Dickie Cornish from a steam grate, cleaned him up, and convinced him to use his street connections to track down his missing property. Now, as the summer sun bakes those same mean streets, the air is thick with crime, contagion, and corruption. Dickie struggles with sobriety, anti-psychotic meds, and counseling at the VA, but manages to make a meager living as a private investigator with his sidekick, “Stripe”—until an ex-con named Al-Mayadeen Thomas sticks a gun to Dickie’s forehead and kidnaps him to a grim flophouse—a motel filled with squatters more desperate than the poor souls in the shelters.
Thomas demands that Dickie find his daughter, missing for years from the motel in a notorious cold case. The other squatters plead for him to find their vanished children as well. When Thomas takes his own life to seal Dickie’s help, Police Chief Linda Figgis hauls Dickie in and offers him a Faustian choice: she directs him to help her close the Thomas cold case, but only if he forgets about the other vanished and abused children. To his horror, Dickie finds himself in the middle of a war within the police, with either side closing in for the kill to keep the truth hidden.
The sequel to author Christopher Chambers' critically-acclaimed mystery SCAVENGER, STANDALONE has already received high praise. 2022 Sue Grafton Memorial Award winner Tracy Clark (author, the Cass Raines Chicago mystery series) proclaims, "Dickie Cornish works the gritty underbelly of DC, and it’s hard to decide who skirts the edges more, Dickie or our corrupt nation’s capital. Earthy, raw, all the way street, STANDALONE’s got a lot to say." And award-winning mystery author Gary Phillips (One-Shot Harry) raves, "Once again Chris Chambers weaves a mesmerizing and timely tale of twists and deceit with his most unique street level gumshoe Dickie Cornish at the center of it all. A well crafted page turner.”
It’s been over year since that bleak Christmas when a rich man peeled homeless, drug-addled Dickie Cornish from a steam grate, cleaned him up, and convinced him to use his street connections to track down his missing property. Now, as the summer sun bakes those same mean streets, the air is thick with crime, contagion, and corruption. Dickie struggles with sobriety, anti-psychotic meds, and counseling at the VA, but manages to make a meager living as a private investigator with his sidekick, “Stripe”—until an ex-con named Al-Mayadeen Thomas sticks a gun to Dickie’s forehead and kidnaps him to a grim flophouse—a motel filled with squatters more desperate than the poor souls in the shelters.
Thomas demands that Dickie find his daughter, missing for years from the motel in a notorious cold case. The other squatters plead for him to find their vanished children as well. When Thomas takes his own life to seal Dickie’s help, Police Chief Linda Figgis hauls Dickie in and offers him a Faustian choice: she directs him to help her close the Thomas cold case, but only if he forgets about the other vanished and abused children. To his horror, Dickie finds himself in the middle of a war within the police, with either side closing in for the kill to keep the truth hidden.
The sequel to author Christopher Chambers' critically-acclaimed mystery SCAVENGER, STANDALONE has already received high praise. 2022 Sue Grafton Memorial Award winner Tracy Clark (author, the Cass Raines Chicago mystery series) proclaims, "Dickie Cornish works the gritty underbelly of DC, and it’s hard to decide who skirts the edges more, Dickie or our corrupt nation’s capital. Earthy, raw, all the way street, STANDALONE’s got a lot to say." And award-winning mystery author Gary Phillips (One-Shot Harry) raves, "Once again Chris Chambers weaves a mesmerizing and timely tale of twists and deceit with his most unique street level gumshoe Dickie Cornish at the center of it all. A well crafted page turner.”
Kindle Edition
Published October 18, 2022
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About the author
Christopher Chambers
45 books63 followersChristopher Chambers is a crime novelist, professor of media studies, lawyer, and International Fellow at International Conflict Resolution Center. His works include the first two installment in the Dickie Cornish mystery series, Scavenger and Standalone (Three Rooms Press); two Penguin Random House releases: A Prayer for Deliverance and Sympathy for the Devil (NAACP Image Award nominee); the graphic anthology (with Gary Phillips) The Darker Mask (Tor Books); the PEN/Malamud-nominated story “Leviathan” and "The Psalm of Bo"; and more. Chambers is a regular commentator and contributor on media and culture issues on SiriusXM Radio, ABC News, and HuffPost. He resides in his hometown of Washington, D.C. with his family and German Shepherd, Max.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
November 17, 2022
Amazing follow-up. Shows evolution of this character from unhoused, junkie, wino all of these things to a gallant person squeezed by so many evil forces, power centers present in any city, but of particular odiousness in the nation's capital. Now a full-fledged PI--thanks to a manipulative Police Chief-- he's on his VA hosp meds thus Chambers shifts the narrative to a more traditional first-person POV. Yet the language is equally fresh, gritty as experimental as Scavenger. This is the neo in neo-noir.
September 19, 2022
I received this book as part of LibraryThing’s early reviewer program.
I enjoyed Standalone, by Christopher Chambers. the language and the characters all seemed authentic to me. I particularly liked the dynamic between Dickie and "Gunny" and the differences in their personalities. Good twists and turns too.
I enjoyed Standalone, by Christopher Chambers. the language and the characters all seemed authentic to me. I particularly liked the dynamic between Dickie and "Gunny" and the differences in their personalities. Good twists and turns too.
August 24, 2022
Author Christopher Chambers has a really gripping crime novel here. It was a page turner from the start.
November 17, 2022
I'm glad to see the second person narration, which was a key factor in the first novel, limited to times of stress for the protagonist, Dickie Cornish, in this sequel. It was natural and an interesting tool in the first in this series, but would have been a distraction in this new novel. I am impressed with the other natural progression where, as a homeless invisible man snatched into intrigue in Scavenger his likewise invisible to the police. Now he is not only visible as he's become engaged with society he's also both target and weapon. Very cool, visceral urban crime fiction and heir to Pelecanos' mantle.
September 3, 2022
I rate this book 3.5 stars rounded down. Portions of the book are written in street jargon and are very hard to understand. Two quotes:
Dickie Cornish in custody "Didn't all these smiling bigshots tells Trump's tonton macoutes never be caging folks like sick animals again? Well, this ain't no heat mirage, and I get a better look when baldie yanks me to my feet with the help of a jarhead-looking whiteboy jake."
Dickie with Al Mayadeen:
"Boston, he's suddenly folding back into the shadows like a nappy-headed Nosferatu peeping a crucifix when Al-Mayadeen hips you to two ofays in an open top, jeep."
This is book 2 in the Dickie Cornish series. There are refences to events in book 1 when Dickie took down a bunch of bad guys. Because of his reputation from that episode, he is asked by Al Mayadeen to find his missing daughter, at gunpoint. But then Al Mayadeen commits suicide.
Dickie is then recruited by the Washington, D.C. police commissioner to do the same. He is given a temporary private investigator license by the commissioner. Dickie is a street denizen and ex addict. This temporary license is a major gift for him. Dickie uncovers high level corruption and almost gets killed. He does solve the case.
One warning: There is a fair amount of profanity in this book.
Thanks to Three Rooms Press for sending me this book through LibraryThing.
Dickie Cornish in custody "Didn't all these smiling bigshots tells Trump's tonton macoutes never be caging folks like sick animals again? Well, this ain't no heat mirage, and I get a better look when baldie yanks me to my feet with the help of a jarhead-looking whiteboy jake."
Dickie with Al Mayadeen:
"Boston, he's suddenly folding back into the shadows like a nappy-headed Nosferatu peeping a crucifix when Al-Mayadeen hips you to two ofays in an open top, jeep."
This is book 2 in the Dickie Cornish series. There are refences to events in book 1 when Dickie took down a bunch of bad guys. Because of his reputation from that episode, he is asked by Al Mayadeen to find his missing daughter, at gunpoint. But then Al Mayadeen commits suicide.
Dickie is then recruited by the Washington, D.C. police commissioner to do the same. He is given a temporary private investigator license by the commissioner. Dickie is a street denizen and ex addict. This temporary license is a major gift for him. Dickie uncovers high level corruption and almost gets killed. He does solve the case.
One warning: There is a fair amount of profanity in this book.
Thanks to Three Rooms Press for sending me this book through LibraryThing.
November 17, 2022
I'm glad to see the second person narration, which was a key factor in the first novel, limited to times of stress for the protagonist, Dickie Cornish, in this sequel. It was natural and an interesting tool in the first in this series, but would have been a distraction in this new novel. I am impressed with the other natural progression where, as a homeless invisible man snatched into intrigue in Scavenger his likewise invisible to the police. Now he is not only visible as he's become engaged with society he's also both target and weapon. Very cool, visceral urban crime fiction and heir to Pelecanos' mantle.
March 15, 2023
3.5 stars.
Standalone definitely gave me The Wire vibes.
It was a difficult start for me, since so much of the dialogue and point-of-view were written in street slang and vernacular. Once I was able to interpret and it settled down a bit, the story line sucked me in.
Dickie is kind of a wonderful character. He’s honestly a mess; full of flaws, good intentions, and fuck-ups. At the end of the day, he figures it all out, but it’s not without some misdirection along the way.
Gritty and interesting, Standalone intrigued me. I only wish the flow and vernacular had been a little easier to read, as that definitely took away from my enjoyment. Regardless, I love The Wire and I love a story about corruption!
Thank you to Three Rooms Press for my gifted copy!
Standalone definitely gave me The Wire vibes.
It was a difficult start for me, since so much of the dialogue and point-of-view were written in street slang and vernacular. Once I was able to interpret and it settled down a bit, the story line sucked me in.
Dickie is kind of a wonderful character. He’s honestly a mess; full of flaws, good intentions, and fuck-ups. At the end of the day, he figures it all out, but it’s not without some misdirection along the way.
Gritty and interesting, Standalone intrigued me. I only wish the flow and vernacular had been a little easier to read, as that definitely took away from my enjoyment. Regardless, I love The Wire and I love a story about corruption!
Thank you to Three Rooms Press for my gifted copy!
July 17, 2022
I received an advance copy of this book. Thank you.
I was looking forward to this book, and I've enjoyed similar ones, but unfortunately, I didn't like this book at all.
There is a book before this, and maybe that would have helped, since I often felt like I was missing something. I struggled to get into the rhythm of the vernacular, which surprised me, since I read a lot of diverse books and generally don't have an issue.
Although I didn't care for this book, I'm sure some will like it.
I was looking forward to this book, and I've enjoyed similar ones, but unfortunately, I didn't like this book at all.
There is a book before this, and maybe that would have helped, since I often felt like I was missing something. I struggled to get into the rhythm of the vernacular, which surprised me, since I read a lot of diverse books and generally don't have an issue.
Although I didn't care for this book, I'm sure some will like it.
July 19, 2022
To be perfectly honest I could not even get to the halfway point of this book because I simply did not understand it. The language, the expressions, the slang, I was constantly having to google just to understand what it meant. The way it is written one minute someone is talking and the next ... Oh I guess he is thinking to himself. Just too confusing for this reader.
I received this from LibraryThing Early Reviewers. Not my cup of tea but I am sure it will be for others.
I received this from LibraryThing Early Reviewers. Not my cup of tea but I am sure it will be for others.
August 9, 2022
This was tough. I almost stopped reading this book at the start of it, as it was difficult for me to understand. But I am not a quitter and do enjoy a mystery. Unfortunately with all that was going on, it still didn’t do it for me. Dickie Cornish, an unlicensed PI and street person is forced to look for a missing girl. What he finds is corruption on all levels. Confusing for me but I finished the book. It wasn’t for me. Sorry.
August 7, 2022
I might have given this novel a higher rating but I didn't understand quite a bit of it. While I got the general plot, I had a hard time with most of the details.
November 17, 2022
Amazing follow-up. Shows evolution of this character from unhoused, junkie, wino all of these things to a gallant person squeezed by so many evil forces, power centers present in any city, but of particular odiousness in the nation's capital. Now a full-fledged PI--thanks to a manipulative Police Chief-- he's on his VA hosp meds thus Chambers shifts the narrative to a more traditional first-person POV. Yet the language is equally fresh, gritty as experimental as Scavenger. This is the neo in neo-noir.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews