Room to Swing
by Ed Lacy
On This Page
Description
"This 1958 Edgar Award winner for best novel from Lacy (1911-1968) masterfully combines a classic genre trope with a powerful depiction of the impact of racism in 1950s America."-- Publishers Weekly, Starred Review "Though private investigators were the most popular figures in crime writing, especially in the work of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Ellery Queen, and Rex Stout, no one had created a Black hard-boiled private eye in a noir setting until Ed Lacy's Room to show more Swing."--Leslie Klinger, from Introduction College-educated and decorated war-veteran Toussaint Moore, finds that his employment options are limited as a Black man in 1950s America. With little choice, he seeks out a living as a private eye, serving Black clients in his hometown of Harlem. When hired by the television producers of a reality show called "You--Detective!" Touie must keep tabs on the whereabouts of an accused child molester. While waiting for the episode to air, Touie finds the man murdered and becomes the prime suspect in the investigation. Forced to flee, he goes to a small Ohio town where the deceased was wanted for his crime. "Lacy asks whether a Black man (in the late fifties) can go everywhere he needs to, with the freedom his job requires, in order to conduct the investigation necessary to crack a case."--Criminal Element show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
How a white guy wrote this multi-dimensional FANTASTIC black character is so far beyond me that it blows my mind. And he wrote it in 1957. This book is shockingly good and deserved the Edgar Award that it won in 1958. Fantastic characters. Great plot. Fast paced. Simply one of the best of the genre I've read in a long, long time!
Written by a white man married to a black woman this mystery treats of black situation the early 1950s in New York and in small town America. A white man is killed and the black detective is set up. He thinks he must find the real killer to clear himself. Novel gives a look at black life in Harlem as well as a group of 'hip" whites who complicate matters.
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.
Ed Lacy è sempre un po' diverso: questa volta il suo detective è nero e siamo negli anni 50: razzismo a livelli diversi tra NYCity e il Kentucky.
Ratings
Members
- Recently Added By
Lists
Edgar Award
418 works; 15 members
Author Information
42+ Works 411 Members
Awards and Honors
Awards
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Common Knowledge
- Original title
- Room to Swing
- Original publication date
- 1957
- People/Characters
- Toussaint Moore
- Epigraph
- The mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred. --Thomas Jefferson
- First words
- I broke par in Bingston.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)I'd been trying to tell her what I'd known for the last six or seven hours...When I drove the Jag back from Bingston I wouldn't be driving alone...I hoped.
- Original language
- English
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 84
- Popularity
- 378,328
- Reviews
- 4
- Rating
- (4.00)
- Languages
- 7 — Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Latin, Spanish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 9
- ASINs
- 6
