The Fitzgerald Ruse

By Mark de Castrique

Former Chief Warrant Officer Sam Blackman lost a leg in Iraq and emerged from the V.A. hospital in Asheville, NC, as a bitter civilian without a job or a future. But when he solved a series of local murders, Sam not only brought the guilty to justice but found meaning for his life. Now he and his partner, Nakayla Robertson, are opening a detective agency. They have high hopes that the thriving mountain region will provide a steady stream of cases.
Their first client, a quirky elderly woman in a retirement community, makes a strange request. She wants Sam to right a wrong she committed more than 70 years ago. Her victim was F. Scott Fitzgerald. Her crime was stealing a manuscript. Sam’s task seems simple enough: retrieve the woman’s lockbox and deliver the manuscript to Fitzgerald’s heirs.
But nothing is simple for Sam. The lockbox is sealed with a swastika, a symbol his client insists predates the Nazis and reflects a scene from The Great Gatsby. Then a security guard is killed and the lockbox disappears. Not only has this investigation triggered a murder, but Sam’s final military case has followed him from Iraq and neither he nor anyone close to him is safe. Are the mysteries connected? Or is one a ruse luring him into the crosshairs of his enemies?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
• Release date: May 27, 2010
• ISBN: 9781615950386

Mark de Castrique

Mark de Castrique grew up in the mountains of western North Carolina where many of his novels are set. He's a veteran of the television and film production industry, has served as an adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte teaching The American Mystery, and he's a frequent speaker and workshop leader. He and his wife, Linda, live in Charlotte, North Carolina. www.markdecastrique.com

Reviews for The Fitzgerald Ruse

[thornton37814 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In this second installment of the Sam Blackman series, Sam and Nakayla set up an office, put something belonging to a client in it for safekeeping, and have it stolen before they return, finding the security guard murdered. The plot has ties into Sam's service in Iraq where he was injured, with Blackwater, and with F. Scott Fitzgerald's time spent in Asheville in 1935. This series has quickly become one of my favorites. Unfortunately, this completes my reading of the four written to date. I'm not certain how many more authors have literary ties to the Asheville area so I'm not certain if there will be additional installments forthcoming or not. The novel mentioned some of my favorite things about Asheville such as the Tupelo Honey Cafe and Malaprop's bookstore.

[lucybrown_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Mark DeCastrique's Sam Blackman mysteries a entertaining. I have lived in Western North Carolina since the 1980s; however, each time I read one of Mark's books I find out about some juicy historical tidbit.

[cathyskye · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

First Line: The night sky around Asheville can play tricks on the eye.Former U.S. military CID officer Sam Blackman and his lover, Nakayla Robertson, have set up a detective agency in Asheville, North Carolina. Their first client, Ethel Barkley, is a bit eccentric and lives in a retirement home. Her request? To retrieve a lockbox which contains an F. Scott Fitzgerald manuscript. Mrs. Barkley feels the need to right a wrong she committed over seventy years ago.No sooner than Sam and Nakayla have the lockbox in their possession than it's stolen and a security guard is killed. As Blackman and Robertson investigate, they find that either someone is killing to protect an American fascist organization that flourished in the 1930s, or rogue Blackwater mercenaries have come after the loot they believe Sam stole from them. Either way, Sam and Nakayla have to put together their evidence quickly before anyone else dies.The strengths of The Fitzgerald Ruse lie in its plot, which is based on various historical occurrences in the Asheville, North Carolina area, and in its main characters of Sam Blackman and Nakayla Robertson.Sam has come a long way since the first book in the series, Blackman's Coffin. In the first book, he was a bit too bitter and whiny after having had a leg amputated while serving in Iraq. (Yes, I do have a heart, and I do have compassion, but there comes a point when bitterness and whining start to detract from a story instead of giving a reader insight into a character.) In this second book, he's come a long way in accepting what happened, and de Castrique adds several pieces of information which help the reader better understand amputees.Nakayla Robertson is a strong woman and a good choice to be able to stand up to the rather forceful Sam, and their banter brings a welcome breeze of humor into the novel.Do you have to read the first book in this series to have The Fitzgerald Ruse make sense? Absolutely not, but I'd suggest that you read it anyway for the amazing plot and for the first glimpses into the characters of Sam and Nakayla. I'm really looking forward to reading more of their adventures.

[tututhefirst_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Set in North Carolina, this tells the adventures of Sam Blackman, recently retired Army Chief Warrant Officer who lost a leg in Iraq in an incident involving Blackwater Company mercenaries. He and his partner (in detecting and in life) Nakayla Robertson are opening their own detective agency. Their first case involves a old lady in nursing home who wants to right a wrong she supposedly did to F. Scott Fitzgerald 70 years ago! The plot is a bit convoluted, with several sidebars seeming to be entwined (or are they?) but the characters are charming, interesting and cunning. Again, I was able to spot 'whodunnit' before the author revealed it, but that didn't detract from the story. This is a couple I'd like to see more of, although I'm not sure I could take a steady diet of these two.