A great sequel. Sully the character is further fleshed out. More perks into the world of D. C. journalism. Surprise follow surprise but it all holds together, and the journalists talent of evoking a time and place are clear. Looking forward to Sully #3. ( )

Detective novel with Sully Carter. Good beach read. Cut above the usual genre. Tucker has the language of the inner-city and its law enforcement down pat. ( )

The man who investigates the murder of a young, black, gay college student from a wealthy, old society family is not a detective, a police officer, an attorney, or a coroner. It is a former war correspondent newsman who was seriously injured and disabled in Bosnia. Back home, he cannot give it a break. No relaxing or healing for him. He is right in the middle of a cover-up/scandal perpetuated by the murder victim's mother and her high powered attorney. The outcome is a shocker. Secrets long dead are exposed. It's a fascinating read set in modern day D.C., but we learn a great deal about the 19th century city. My thanks to the author and Penguin's First to Read program for a complimentary copy. ( )

This story, set in 2000, takes place in fictional “Frenchman’s Bend” in Southwest D.C. (At the point where the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers intersect, there is indeed a “bend” if not one called as such in real life.)

Right at the geographical bend, the author situates a blighted drug park, full of “brown dirt and weeds too dumb to die and scraps of paper and brightly colored plastic bags, trash flitting across the scrub.” Thus we are introduced to a recurring theme of Tucker’s: the dichotomy between the rich, powerful, and wealthy sections of D.C., and the rest of the city. Most tourists, he opines, would be shocked by the contrast between the “emerald idyll” of East Potomac Park, and the “broken glass and the hard hustle” near “some of the most brutal projects in the city” where you can find “smack freaks, crack whores, smoke hounds, drunken assholes, the lowest forms of prostitution known to mankind.” (In the book, a reporter at "The Washington Post" makes fun of the naïve tourists: “yahoos from flyover, a-damn-mazed this happened in sight of the Capitol Building? . . .You’d think they’d read the papers before they got here….”)

No one lives in The Bend: “It was just open ground. It was where D.C. went to kill and be killed,” the “murder capital of the murder capital.” Moreover, most cases remained unsolved “because no one who knew enough cared to get involved.”

[The author posits that The Bend was the primary site of D.C.’s most notorious antebellum slave market. In actual fact, while The Bend itself is fictional, there were a number of white slave traders who operated in Washington as well as nearby Virginia, including the Alexandria slave-trading firm that became the largest in the country for an eight-year period, Franklin & Armfield. As the Pulitzer Prize winning historian David Levering Lewis wrote, “The auction block, the lash, and the manacled gangs on their way to the Deep South were as much a part of Washington as the steamy climate, the malaria, the marshes, and the dust.”

Spaces in taverns and in jails were rented out for placement of shackled slaves. There were also privately owned slave holding areas, called “Georgia Pens,” which were notoriously bad. One of the worst of those dungeons was known as Williams Private Jail or “The Yellow House” and was located just south of the current grounds of the Smithsonian Institution.]

The hero of Tucker’s series of stories about D.C. crime (this is the second) is Sullivan “Sully” Carter, a former foreign war correspondent for "The Washington Post" who now works on the metro beat. His traumatic wartime experiences left him with serious PTSD and a bad alcohol problem. Still, he manages to solve crimes that elude the police.

As the book begins, the press has just learned of the death of 21-year-old Billy Ellison, the scion of a black elite family with a long history in Washington. Billy’s father died years before, but his mother, Delores, was on the White House social list. She worked as a strategist for the powerful attorney, Shellie Stevens, who met with Sully only to warn him off the case. But that just amounted to a challenge for Sully. Furthermore, Sully wants to tie the death into the history of The Bend. He also wants to pull in the subject of other recent deaths in The Bend; it looked like a war was picking up between rival drug gangs, and interviews lead him to believe that Ellison was somehow involved. To get the inside info, he contacts Sly Hastings, “one of the deadliest men in the city, a killer and a sociopath, and perhaps his best source in town.”

Sly tries to educate Sully about what has been happening with the drug scene:

"‘That there is the problem with you reporters,’ he said. ‘Y’all always looking at the wrong thing, barking up the wrong goddamn tree. Woof woof over here, woof woof over there. Look here. Follow the money. Ain’t that what y’all like to say?”

Sully chases down the story, in many instances at his own mortal peril. But, as he muses:

"…stories were nothing but fever dreams that came ad passed through you and, later, left you looking back, wondering how the thing had possessed you so completely.”

And solving crimes? That was like “a crossword puzzle with gore.” He couldn’t resist even if he wanted to do so.

Evaluation: This gritty follow-up to the first book in the series, The Ways of the Dead, keeps you turning the pages. I especially liked the way in which the author integrates local history into the plot, adding a lot of interest to what otherwise might just be another well-written noir who-done-it. ( )

Neely Tucker's debut novel, Ways of the Dead, introduced us to reporter Sully Carter. I really enjoyed Tucker's first book and was looking forward to his just released second novel - Murder, D.C.

Sully knows there's more to the story when Billy Ellison, son of one of Washington's most wealthy, influential and revered black families, is found dead in a park known for gang and drug activity. Repeatedly warned off by his newspaper, Billy's family and the local gangs, Sully is like a dog with a bone - he won't back down and he won't let go.

Which makes for a helluva good read. The plot of Murder, D.C. was inventive, drawing on both fact and fiction. I enjoyed riding along with Sully as he slowly uncovers bits and pieces, ferreting out the truth amongst the lies to arrive at the final reveal. I had my suspicions along the way, but was surprised by many of the turns the book took. (And this is a good thing - I enjoy not being able to predict a plot)

The best protagonists for crime books are the walking wounded, the ones who buck authority, the ones who just can't let things be or let justice go unserved. Sully Carter fills the bill on every count. He's battling PTSD, alcohol and anger issues, his bosses and manages to step on toes everywhere he goes. (many times on purpose) He's also a confidant of the one of DC's most feared crimelords. In this latest book, Tucker continues to fleshy out Sully's character, exposing more of his personal life and the reasons behind his runaway train of a life. Alexis, a photographer, Sully's friend and sometimes lover was a great addition to the story. I loved her attitude and view on life. I hope we see more of her in the future.

Both characters have a history as war correspondents. Neely's own background is rich and wide reaching. His experience as a journalist is evident in his writing. (And I wonder how much of Sully is drawn from the author himself) Neely's descriptions of time and place are vivid and I had strong mental images of the streets, back alleys and underbelly of Washington. These books are set in the late 1990's - when Washington was known as the murder capital of the U.S. (Hence the title)

I look forward to Sully's next story. ( )