Fear of the dark

Description:

When his cousin Ulysses S. Grant IV comes knocking, Paris Minton would rather keep the door shut, because "Useless" is a snake who brings bad luck wherever he goes. But trouble always finds an open window, and soon there's a man murdered on his bookshop floor, evidence of blackmail is discovered, and Useless has vanished. To get out of this mess, Paris turns to his solid-hearted but quick-fisted friend Fearless Jones. Traversing the complex landscape of 1950s Los Angeles, where a wrong look can get a black man killed, Paris and Fearless find deperate women, secret lives--and more than one dead body.

subjects: Mystery,  Paris Minton (Fictitious character),  Private investigators,  Fiction,  Fearless Jones (Fictitious character),  African American men,  Booksellers and bookselling,  Los angeles (calif.), fiction,  African americans, fiction,  Fiction, mystery & detective, general,  Private investigators, fiction,  Booksellers and bookselling, fiction,  Large type books

Places: Los Angeles (Calif.),  California,  Los Angeles