As Kristine Kathryn Rusch (her real name), she has carved out a comfortable niche as a science fiction and fantasy writer whose works include Star Wars, Star Trek and X-Men stories. As Kristine Grayson, she has successfully tried her hand at romance writing. Her novels, Utterly Charming and Thoroughly Kissed, are innovative reworkings of classic fairy tales with a bit of humor and history thrown into the mix.

She recently has entered the mystery writing scene as Kris Nelscott. Her debut mystery, A Dangerous Road, combines her storytelling talent and her love of history in an intriguing tale set in the turbulent era of the late 1960s. I recommend it.

The novel introduces Smokey Dalton, an African-American detective, who prefers calling his line of work “doing odd jobs.” Smokey grew up in Atlanta where he was a childhood friend of a boy the world would later come to know as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was adopted after the death of his parents and grew up in Washington, D.C. Smokey completed undergraduate and graduate school before doing a stint in the army and service in Korea.

When A Dangerous Road begins, it is February of 1968 and Smokey is doing his odd jobs from an office in Memphis. A labor dispute between the city and its mostly Black sanitation workers has gotten ugly. There have been disturbances in the streets. The confrontations have taken on racial overtones.

Against the backdrop of the unrest, a young white woman has come from Chicago to see Smokey. Laura Hathaway has sought him out in the hopes of learning why her late mother left him $10,000 in her will. Smokey has never been to Chicago, nor does he recognize photographs of the Hathaway family. He does, however, recall receiving an identical amount nearly ten years earlier, that time from an anonymous benefactor. His instincts tell him the two are connected. Smokey and Laura begin the painstaking task of searching her parents' personal and private papers for clues.

As the atmosphere surrounding the garbage strike continues to deteriorate, community leaders invite several national civil rights figures to Memphis - including Dr. King. At the same time, a group of young Black militants who disagree with the older leaders' nonviolent approach are spoiling for a fight. When Smokey encounters a former military operative with the young radicals, he suspects the man is now working for the F.B.I. and all may not be as it seems. His suspicions are confirmed by a young street kid whose older brother has fallen in with the group. Smokey tries to get the religious leaders to call off the march with Dr. King to no avail.

Kris Nelscott has paced her story along the historic time line of 1968. The novel takes place over two months in that year. The presidential primaries, the Vietnam War, preparations for the Poor People's March, and President Lyndon B. Johnson's decision not to run for re-election are part of plot. The reader knows what Smokey does not - that Dr. King’s life will end April 4, 1968. Nelscott has done her homework. Her narrative captures the mood and history of the time and she has peppered her story with snippets of African-American history. Nelscott’s story takes its title from remarks made by Dr. King on the night before his death. She has woven an intriguing tale of betrayal, missed opportunities, family secrets against a backdrop of another time when America lost its innocence. Overall, the story works well except for the rather clichéd relationship between Laura and Smokey.

While the main story works to piece together the connection between Smokey and the Hathaways, Nelscott’s subplot involving the King assassination is a boon for conspiracy theorists. Many of the secrets surrounding what really happened April 4, 1968 are probably buried along with the convicted assassin, James Earl Ray. (Later in his life, Ray denied any involvement in the murder.) However, A Dangerous Road posits who may have had Dr. King killed and why. Beyond that speculation, Nelscott’s story positions Smokey's young charge at the scene of the murder as a possible eyewitness. That tale is to be continued in the next Smokey Dalton mystery, Smoke Filled Rooms.

--Gwendolyn Osborne