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Goldsboro Books

9780312192549

Crossroad Blues: A Nick Travers Mystery

Crossroad Blues: A Nick Travers Mystery

by Ace Atkins

Publisher St. Martin's Press

Released:

  • Signed by the Author
  • USA First Edition
  • Hardcover


Regular price £20.00
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About the book

Nick Travers is back where it all began.
Years after The Philadelphia Inquirer proclaimed Crossroad Blues an impressive debut by a promising new talent, the acclaimed crime novel is back in print.
A modern, Southern re-invention of The Maltese Falcon, Crossroad Blues won noir fans with its nod to the masters and thrilled readers with a wild ride along Highway 61. Its here that we first meet Nick Travers, an ex-New Orleans Saint turned Tulane University blues historian. Nick searches for the lost recordings of 1930s bluesman Robert Johnsonand a missing colleagueand finds trouble at every turn.
The cast of characters includes a red-headed siren, an Elvis-worshipping hitman, Johnsons ghost, and the Mississippi Delta itself. A decade later, Crossroad Blues still sings.

Critical Praise
In Atkins hands, the characters are as substantial as a down home breakfast of biscuits and ham with red-eye gravy. Entertainment Weekly
When (Atkins) old guys open up, you can really hear the music everybody talks about so reverently. The New York Times
"Atkins' research into blues history adds depth and context to the always entertaining story, which whizzes by like an old, familiar song heard on the car radio late at night." The Chicago Tribune

This edition includes an Afterword by Greil Marcus

Collapsible content

About the Author

Ace Atkins

Ace Atkins is an American journalist and author. Atkins worked as a crime reporter in the newsroom of The Tampa Tribune before he published his first novel, Crossroad Blues, in 1998. He became a full-time novelist at the age of 30.


While at the Tribune, Atkins earned a Pulitzer Prize nomination for a feature series based on his investigation into a forgotten murder of the 1950s. The story became the core of his critically acclaimed novel, White Shadow. In his next novels, Wicked City and Devil's Garden, Atkins continued this kind of story-telling, a style that was compared to that of Dennis Lehane and George Pelecanos.


Each novel contains bits of himself – friends and colleagues he once knew, people he respected or admired, family members, and personal heroes. In Devil's Garden, Atkins explores the early life of one of those heroes: Dashiell Hammett, the originator of the hard-boiled crime novel. Atkins' 2010 novel, Infamous, is based on the 1933 Charles Urschel kidnapping and subsequent misadventures of the gangster couple George "Machine Gun" and Kathryn Kelly.


In 2011 Atkins was selected by the estate of Robert B. Parker to take over writing the Spenser series of novels.


Atkins lives on a historic farm outside Oxford, Mississippi with his family. He graduated from Auburn University in 1994 and lettered for the Auburn University football team in 1992 and 1993. He was featured on the Sports Illustrated cover commemorating the Tigers' perfect 11-0 season of 1993. The cover shows Atkins celebrating after sacking future Heisman Trophy winner Danny Wuerffel of the Florida Gators. Atkins wore number 99 for the Tigers.

  • Professionally Packed

    All of our books that have a dust wrapper are covered in clear protective, removable film and are packed professionally in bubble wrap and a box for shipping so that they reach you in perfect condition.

  • Book Condition & Notes

    All of our books that a have dust wrapper are covered in clear protective, removable film and are packed professionally in bubble wrap and a box for shipping so that they reach you in perfect condition.

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