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It isn't often that someone who is a product of the streets and who has spent a chunk of his youth in the juvenile justice system is able to become a productive, law-abiding citizen. Willis Gidney spent his early years bouncing around between foster homes where he would deliberately misbehave so that he could go back to where he really felt he really belonged, the youth incarceration center where he could work scams with his best friend, Eddie Vermeer. Eventually, a cop named Shadrack Davies takes Willis into his family where he begins to thrive. But Gidney knows he has business to take care of at the prison and again behaves so abominably that even Shad gives up on him. Now that Willis is an adult, he's turned his skills in a more legal direction, becoming a private investigator. He has the raw talent to do well at his chosen profession, especially since he's learned the ways of the authorities at the hands of his foster father and has survived the mean streets of Washington, DC. He is still a novice in many ways and doesn't always follow the logical course in investigating. At the moment, he's been asked by his best friend, jazz saxophonist Steps Jackson, to find his missing daughter. The search is complicated by the fact that Steps has never met the young woman, who was conceived in a brief relationship many years earlier. It also doesn't help that she has a rather generic name, "Bobbie Jackson." Despite that, Willis is successful in finding information that leads him to her door. His troubles only begin at that point; he finds himself facing a murder charge and some rather evil political and business types. The book follows two narrative paths, one concentrating on the details of Gidney's youth and one focusing on the present day. Willis's childhood background was an important factor in understanding his adult actions and served well in developing the character. There were a few missteps along the way, including a street hood who spoke in haiku. I appreciated Gidney's sense of humor but felt it was sometimes overdone, as he wisecracked in situations where he was in grave danger. Kaufman won the PWA Best First Private Eye Novel competition. Although DRINK THE TEA isn't a perfect book, it shows great promise as Willis shows signs of developing into a formidable investigator. He's certainly an original character, which bodes well for a possible series. § Formerly a training development manager for a large company, Maddy is now retired in Frisco, TX, and continues to enable the addiction of crime fiction fans as owner of the online discussion group, 4 Mystery Addicts(4MA), while avidly reading at every possible free moment herself.
Reviewed by Maddy Van Hertbruggen, April 2010
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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