Customer Rating:  
Summary: Moody Blues
Comment: This is a darker and more complex novel -emotionally and in plot terms -than its predecessor in thr series " Crossroad Blues".
The protagonist is once again blues historian and academic ,the ex pro footballer "Nick " .He is lured by an invitation to interview " Ruby Walker " who,recording under the name "Sweet Black Angel " had scored a major hit record in the early 50's and was seemingly set fair to build a lasting and solid career as a blues singer .She was then convicted of murdering her manager,one Billy Lyons. and given a life sentence ,one she is still serving .In their meeting she insists on her innocence and asks Nick to trace the real killer -no mean feat if accomplished since the crime is over 50 years old.
He begins digging into the past and finds that some of her band members of the time had died in mysterious circumstances but his investigations are hampered and his life threatened when the local drugs lord Stagger Lee sets out to block his investigations .Stagger Lee is not a man to be trifled with -powerfully built and utterly without scruple he uses two coked out hookers with a mean streak a mile wide to enforce his will .
The case is one that unfolds in dark and stagnant backwaters of the spirit and even good guys ,those striving to bring hope into the blighted ghetto world ,are found to be compromised and tainted by contact with evil and moral equivocation.
The plot is worked out adequately but what sets the book apart from its competitors is its atmosphere -the weather plays a key role in setting mood .It is a bone freezing Chicago winter with a wind like a lacerating knife that chills to the bone and numbs the spirit ;the rain slices the air and numbs the spirit -a living counterpoint to the slums and despair which forms the book's physical dimension .
The book is also a love story -a paen of praise and an economium to the blues -and its bitter sweet ending lifts the spirit and says love can endure .
Read it for the mystery elements -they are good -but the blues lovers will get more from the book than will the mystery mavens
Customer Rating:
Summary: Travers Meets Stagger Lee
Comment: LEAVIN' TRUNK BLUES is Ace Atkins' second book in his Nick Travers series following on from CROSSROAD BLUES. Once again we are immersed in blues music lore, legend and attitude as we are taken to nightclubs, are fed lines from blues numbers and left to appreciate the depth of emotion that goes into the blues. At the same time, there are some pretty tense and violent moments as Travers investigates an old murder.
Nick Travers is a blues historian living in New Orleans who works at Tulane University while compiling the research necessary to write his biography of Eddie Jones, better known as Guitar Slim. As part of his all-encompassing interest in the blues he has been sending letters to Ruby Walker, a former blues singer, requesting an interview with her. Ruby is currently in prison and has so far served a 40 year sentence for the murder of her lover and manager, Billy Lyons. She has agreed to speak to Nick and this prompts him to leave New Orleans and head to Chicago. After talking to Ruby and later, when interviewing more old-time blues players around Chicago, Nick gets the impression that there is a strong possibility that she is innocent and has spent the last 40 years paying for a crime she didn't commit.
Nick begins tracking down the old blues artists around Chicago in a bid to find out what they remembered about the night Billy Lyons died. His presence and his line of questioning don't go unnoticed however and it's not long before Stagger Lee gets to hear of him. Stagger Lee is the ruler of Chicago's South Side projects, ruling through terror and an abundance of crack. He is ably assisted by a couple of prostitutes, Annie and Fannie, who are as deadly as they are alluring, a fact that is demonstrated to us a number of times. When Stagger Lee decides he wants Travers stopped, it's these two he sends to do the dirty work.
The story turns into a tense hunter/stalker scenario, with Travers playing the part of both the hunter and the hunted. While he hunts for information, contacting famous musicians and forgotten recording artists, he is unknowingly being stalked by a couple of killers with an impressive track record. Backing them up is the frighteningly imposing figure of Stagger Lee who, like his namesake of legend, is also a man to be feared.
I found that the actual identity of the murderer really becomes of secondary importance as the story progresses, particularly because it is made perfectly obvious who it is so very early on. Instead, it's the tension built into Travers' search that really dragged me in. The reason behind why Billy Lyons was killed dominates our attention too and is the source of a number of surprises along the way.
There are a lot of characters used throughout the book and they ranged from the crazy, off-beat Annie and Fannie who never really progressed beyond the role of killers who wanted to escape the life they led, to the wonderfully captured irreverence of Dirty Jimmy. Jimmy had the demeanor one would expect of an ex-musician who has already seen it all and the harp-blowing little man livened up every scene in which he was included. As for Nick Travers, he is a fine character with the tough background as an ex-NFL footballer with the New Orleans Saints offset by the music geek enthusiasm he displays when he meets the odd blues legend. He comes with just the right mix of strength and vulnerability.
LEAVIN' TRUNK BLUES is a dark, moody story that showcases Chicago's rich history of blues music while providing an enthralling thriller. With the lure of more Nick Travers mysteries to come, I'm sure to be diving into the blues scene courtesy of Ace Atkins in the future.
Customer Rating:
Summary: True Blue American!
Comment: "Leavin Trunk Blues" by Ace Atkins kept my attention. Especially when I got half-way through. Despite the book's minor shortcomings, the plot and concept are brilliant. I will definitely get his first novel Cross Road Blues. FYI, I love the blues and play sax in a couple of bands. Blues music is an American art form that has many shapes and faces and Ace thankfully, is one of them. Reading the book made me appreciate the blues that much more. The story is based on Ruby Walker, a famous blues singer who was wrongfully sent to prison for a crime she did not commit. When she said, "Iam the Blues," I was hooked. In comes Nick Travers, blues historian and all-around good guy. Whose faced against a famous fictional evil character named Stagger Lee, made to be very real and throroughly hateful. As our hero digs up the past, bodies start dropping. Culiminating into a good read. Peopled with colorful characters you want to know more about. "Leavin", keeps you thinkin.I look forward to see more from this author. Thanks Ace!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Solid and moving.
Comment: Atkins' story has a nice combination of solid writing, combined
with an engaging and moving story line.
Our hero, Nick, loves blues music better than anything, maybe
even better than his remembered girl friend, Kate, and when
he is given the chance to go to Chicago and root around in
the past, with the expectation of a revealing interview with
a former blues singer now in prison, he can't wait to get started. His trip north not only allows him to have that interview with a former blues great, whose career was cut
terribly short by a conviction of murdering her lover, but it
also allows him to re-united with that warm ex-, Kate.
When he attempts to learn the truth about the death of the long-
gone musician, for which Ruby was convicted, he encounters
one of the most nasty of fictional killers, and he also
runs into obstacles put up, mysteriously, by former friends
and fellow-musicians of the dead blues man.
The obstacles and problems only encourage Nick to furtherexplore the decades-old murder, as well as the story told him
by the inmate convicted of killing him.
It's a moving and warm story, both intricate and straightforward, and Atkins does a very nice job of combining
the elements of a good read.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Mediocre plotting and writing
Comment: As the author said, "Blues is religion" with all the illogic that implies. The deities are a bunch of doped up, drunken, adultorous, murderous, thieving no-goods who spend their lives whining about the consequences of their actions.They can't sing worth a damn, either.
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