Murder, D.C.

Written by Neely Tucker

Narrated by Scott Sowers

When Billy Ellison, the son of Washington, D.C.'s most influential African-American family, is found dead in the Potomac near a violent drug haven, veteran metro reporter Sully Carter knows it's time to start asking some serious questions-no matter what the consequences. With the police unable to find a lead and pressure mounting for Sully to abandon the investigation, he has a hunch that there is more to the case than a drug deal gone bad or a tale of family misfortune. Digging deeper, Sully finds that the real story stretches far beyond Billy and into D.C.'s most prominent social circles. An alcoholic still haunted from his years as a war correspondent in Bosnia, Sully now must strike a dangerous balance between D.C.'s two extremes-the city's violent, desperate back streets and its highest corridors of power-while threatened by those who will stop at nothing to keep him from discovering the shocking truth. The follow-up to last year's acclaimed The Ways of the Dead, this gritty mystery showcases Tucker's talent for spot-on dialogue, authentic characters, and complex narrative.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Aug 7, 2015
• ISBN: 9781490684239

Reviews for Murder, D.C.

[waldhaus1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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.

[gary10_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[musichick52 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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.

[nbmars · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[twink_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[edgoldberg · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It’s tough when your competition are masters of the trade. Ed McBain and MurderDCMichael Connelly are the masters of police procedurals. Kathy Reichs is the master of forensic anthropology. The crown goes to Arnaldur Indridason for Icelandic mysteries and Thomas H. Cook for literary mysteries. And the head honcho for journalistic mysteries is Bruce DeSilva.So, while Neely Tucker’s journalistic mysteries, which take place in Washington, D. C., are readable, they don’t live up to the bar set by Mr. DeSilva. In Murder, D. C. Billy Ellison, the son of a prominent Black family in Washington, is found washed up on the shore of the The Bend, the former site of slave trading and currently a run-down park used primarily for drug deals. Sully Carter, reporter for ‘the newspaper’, is the journalist on the scene. Initial interviews with Billy’s mother and her employer, the prominent lawyer, Sheldon Stevens, portray Billy as a boy who had everything. However, as Sully gathers more facts, they soon change their tune, stating Billy was gay and was dealing drugs in a big way. Private investigators hired by Stevens seem to be making as little progress as the police in solving Billy’s murder.WaysOfTheDeadThose readers who met Sully in The Ways of the Dead, know he’s a likable character. He drinks a bit…well maybe a lot. He was reporting the war in Bosnia when he got wounded and has the scars and limp to prove it. He has a good working relationship with the police as well as one of the major drug dealers in the metropolitan area. And once he gets hold of something, he rarely, if ever, lets go. So, when things don’t make sense, Sully keeps plugging away, regardless of how many times he gets beaten up, suspended from work, etc.However, Sully Carter doesn’t have the edge and cynicism of Bruce DeSilva’s Liam Mulligan. In addition, the turmoil that the news industry is going through is totally ignored. This is surprising in that Tucker is a journalist, a staff writer at the Washington Post.The plot of Murder, D.C. is good. The characters are good. You’ll enjoy reading Murder, D.C. I just think you’ll enjoy the Bruce DeSilva/Liam Mulligan mysteries more.

[judithdcollins · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A special thank you to Penguin/Viking, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Review to follow.

[virginia51-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was an interesting book. I wasn't sure in the beginning if I was going to like it but it really pulled me on. There were so many secrets in this family. Sully Carter is a reporter who sees the dead body of a rich black college age student. No one wants him to find out the truth of what happened to this kid because of many secrets. Really enjoyed. I received an ebook copy from Firsttoread for a fair and honest opinion.