- Hardcover: 309 pages
- Publisher: Ballantine Books (P) (Aug 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0345422023
- ISBN-13: 978-0345422026
- Product Dimensions: 20.6 x 15 x 3.3 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 4,933,692 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
"What in hell drove Balinda to a night like this?" Everyone who knew Balinda could have told Seattle private eye Thomas Black that the ex-choir girl thumbed a ride with the devil a long time ago. But not even Luther Little, Balinda's father and Black's former partner, expected the pretty young woman to simply vanish off the face of the earth.
Even stranger than Balinda's disappearance is what she left in her wake: an empty purse, a wrecked car, and a dead Eagle Scout in the backseat pumped four times in the stomach with an automatic. What's more, Balinda never even gave notice at her last job--a cozy little backwater diner where a freezer might keep more than crawdads on ice.
It isn't until Balinda's driver is identified that Thomas and Luther suspect trouble. For it turns out that the victim was a fifth-grade Tacoma schoolteacher with an impeccable reputation. But tracking the past of a white-bread teacher is more hazardous than it sounds. Especially when it leads Thomas and Luther back to that modest little eat-in/take-out . . . called Catfish Café.
You can get anything you want at Catfish Café. But watch out. Some of it bites back.
Serving up nothing less than a wickedly devious plot, clever, textured prose, and a classic combination of intrigue and wit, Catfish Café solidifies Emerson's reputation as a master of hard-boiled suspense.
Even stranger than Balinda's disappearance is what she left in her wake: an empty purse, a wrecked car, and a dead Eagle Scout in the backseat pumped four times in the stomach with an automatic. What's more, Balinda never even gave notice at her last job--a cozy little backwater diner where a freezer might keep more than crawdads on ice.
It isn't until Balinda's driver is identified that Thomas and Luther suspect trouble. For it turns out that the victim was a fifth-grade Tacoma schoolteacher with an impeccable reputation. But tracking the past of a white-bread teacher is more hazardous than it sounds. Especially when it leads Thomas and Luther back to that modest little eat-in/take-out . . . called Catfish Café.
You can get anything you want at Catfish Café. But watch out. Some of it bites back.
Serving up nothing less than a wickedly devious plot, clever, textured prose, and a classic combination of intrigue and wit, Catfish Café solidifies Emerson's reputation as a master of hard-boiled suspense.
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First Sentence
LUTHER LITTLE DROVE DEAD BODIES AROUND Seattle the way some people drove pizzas, his primary mission, at least in his own mind, to make delivery before the goods got cold. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
LUTHER LITTLE DROVE DEAD BODIES AROUND Seattle the way some people drove pizzas, his primary mission, at least in his own mind, to make delivery before the goods got cold. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
10 reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Exciting!
14 Jun 2000
Format:Mass Market Paperback
PI Thomas Black, an ex-Seattle cop, is asked by his old partner, Luther, for help finding Luther's daughter. The daughter had been driving a car later found turned over in a ditch with a dead body in the back seat. Did she kill him? Is someone trying to kill her? Is she already dead? This was an exciting and very well-written mystery. The tunnel scene at the end had me so riveted I missed my bus stop. Now that's something! Highly recommended!
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Well written, but predictable
25 Nov 1999
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Having read the previous reviews, it's kind of laughable that this novel gets reviews of either 5 stars or 1 star. Neither is a particularly accurate judgment, no matter what the standards. The writing is excellent, with imagery as good as any Emerson novel (and better than 95% of the authors out there), the characters are interesting, but the 'mysteries' here are as predictable as any novel out there. I find it disappointing to be 5 chapters ahead of the protagonist, particularly in a story told in a first person narrative. The story of Ben Aldrich could have been interesting, but instead was the most predictable plot device I have seen in any of Emerson's previous books. The ending was so-so, and if not for the strong narrative style, would not have been worth the effort. Dennis Lehane has done a much better job in recent years if presenting racial and class differences while presenting strong detective stories. I expect this to be one weak effort from Mr. Emerson and not indicative of anything, but I hope that as much effort will go into the storyline next time as into the characters and settings.
Not as bad as some reviews, but certainly not on par with some of the other reviews. The idea that the bad reviews are due to a reader not wanting to know that much about a 'poor African American family' is ridiculous, totally unsupported by the reviews themselves, and makes me wonder if Al Sharpton is posting reviews here now. Do not make the mistake of thinking that, because race is major factor in this novel, that that alone should somehow make the work exempt from an accurate review.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Good One
29 Jan 2000
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This was the first of the Thomas Black mysteries that I have read and I am hooked. Emerson keeps the action going in each chapter and the ending was unpredictable. The charcaters were well established and so was the atomsphere around the city.
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