The Queen City Detective Agency is the latest by Snowden Wright and his opening salvo in a superb new detective series. If a PI tale steeped in Southern Noir and the complex persona of a Black female detective trying to stay afloat in her hometown of Meridian Mississippi where the locals leap off the page and tug you into the mid-1980’s sounds like a blast, well, this is your cup of sweet tea.
Meet Clem (Clementine) Baldwin, a Black and biracial PI and former cop, and her white partner (and good friend), Dixon Hicks. Clem and Dixon investigate the suicide-turned murder of Turnip Coogan, a purported Dixie Mafia hack and breeder of cockfighting roosters who plummets from the roof of the County Courthouse while in lockup. Next thing you know, Clem and Dixon are dodging bullets at the local John Wesley Hardin club as they interview Turnip’s pregnant widow who’s relieved by Turnip’s demise. Refusing to be intimidated by the near miss, Clem and Dixon remain committed to finding the killer even if the Dixie Mafia might have ordered the attack.
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