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    Blackman's Coffin
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    Blackman's Coffin
    Unavailable
    Blackman's Coffin
    Ebook315 pages7 hours

    Blackman's Coffin

    By Mark de Castrique

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    "A wealth of historical detail, an exciting treasure hunt and credible characters distinguish this fresh, adventurous read." —Publishers Weekly STARRED review

    Sam Blackman is an angry man. A Chief Warrant Officer in the Criminal Investigation Detachment of the U.S. military, he lost a leg in Iraq. His outspoken criticism of his medical treatment resulted in his transfer to the Veteran's Hospital in Asheville, NC. Disillusioned with the military, grieving over the recent death of his parents, and at odds with his brother, Sam's life is in shambles. Then an ex-marine and fellow amputee named Tikima Robertson walks into his hospital room.

    Tikima hints she has an opportunity for Sam to use his investigative skills—if he can stop feeling sorry for himself. But before she can return, Tikima is murdered, her body found floating in the French Broad River. Sam was the last person to see her alive.

    Tikima's sister, Nakayla, brings Sam a journal she finds in Tikima's apartment. A note stuck to the inside cover reads "For Sam Blackman." The volume dates to 1919 and contains the entries of a twelve-year-old boy who accompanies his father, a white funeral director, as they help a black man, Elijah Robertson, transport his deceased relative from Asheville to a small family plot in Georgia.

    The link to the present? Nearly 90 years ago, Elijah's body was also found in the French Broad River, a crime foreshadowing the death of his great-great-granddaughter Tikima.

    Sam and Nakayla must delve into Asheville's rich history, the legacy of the Vanderbilts at the Biltmore estate, and of author Tom Wolfe to uncover the murderous truth.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSourcebooks
    Release dateSep 30, 2011
    ISBN9781615950355
    Unavailable
    Blackman's Coffin
    Author

    Mark de Castrique

    Mark de Castrique grew up in the mountains of western North Carolina where many of his novels are set. He's a veteran of the television and film production industry, has served as an adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte teaching The American Mystery, and he's a frequent speaker and workshop leader. He and his wife, Linda, live in Charlotte, North Carolina. www.markdecastrique.com

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    Reviews for Blackman's Coffin

    3.5/5

    42 ratings4 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Sam Blackman a patient at the Asheville VA hospital is visited by a young woman, Tikima, who like him has lost a limb in the Iraqi war. What begins as a harsh pep talk ends up as an intriguing job offer. Then days later later Tikima y is found dead in the French Broad River. The clues Blackman and Tikima's sister have to go on are scant; an old journal, file cards from Tikima's job as a security specialist. Before long it becomes apparent that Tikima's murder is some how tied to her great- great grandfather's.

      The book is nicely plotted with a focus on character and place rather than the "puzzle." While Mark creates a compelling mystery, replete with clues, his focus remains on the people, something he considers am important aspect of the modern mystery. Besides creating strong characters with Sam and Nakayla, de Castrique deserves as hand for deftly weaving Asheville history and lore into the mystery without turning the story into a history lesson. Coming from nearby Hendersonville it is no surprise that de Castrique knows the area and its history well. His description are spot on.
    • 4/5
      This is the first in the series featuring Sam Blackman, a Veteran who served as a Chief Warrant Officer until he lost a limb. He becomes acquainted with Tikima Robertson, another former veteran who visits veterans, while in the VA hospital in Asheville, North Carolina thanks to an error on a government form. When she turns up dead, Sam, along with Tikima's sister, Nakayla, sets out to investigate. The solution appears to lie in the past. There's a handwritten journal penned by Thomas Wolfe and action at the famed Biltmore Estate. There's even an interesting geological slant that shows the author did his homework to come up with such a gripping narrative. This is an outstanding first in series. Having already read a later installment, I can truly say that this mystery series is quickly becoming one of my favorites.
    • 4/5
      Synopsis: This is book 1 in the series. Sam Blackman is a army vet and a recent amputee. When another army vet comes to him asking for help he is intrigued and eager to help. When his companion mysteriously turns up dead he decides he has to find out why she was killed and if the project she needed his assistance on was linked to his death.Rating:4/5I really enjoyed this book and do plan on continuing with the series. Sam is an interesting character and I liked the relationship he develops with the sister of the deceased along the way. I was also interested in the tension between Sam and his brother, who he was going to live with after his recovery. His brother plays a fairly minor role but I still enjoyed how complex their sibling relationship was. We find out pretty early on that the project Sam was being asked to help with was to solve an old murder. The deceased was the granddaughter of a man who had died mysteriously 70ish years before. Sam is given a journal with information leading up to that death and he quickly comes to believe that the murders are related though they took place so many years apart. Eventually, Sam is trying to solve both murders. I liked the dual timelines but in the beginning the journal entries dragged. The mystery was solid. I didn't guess what was happening or who the murderer was until the reveal. This book has a diverse cast with both disability rep and people of African American descent. There is some discussion, particularly in the past timeline, about the poor treatment of non-whites. Overall this was a solid mystery read I can recommend if you are looking to start a new series. I enjoyed it and I would highly recommend the audio version.
    • 3/5
      I made an exception to my no mysteries with bodies in them policy for this book because my book club was reading it. And I have suffered from creepy nightmares since reading it. I will have to go back to being a coward and refusing to read anything that even has the faintest whiff of being scary. So keeping in mind that I am far from the ideal reader of this particular book, indeed of any book in the genre, here goes.Sam Blackman is in Asheville, NC, in the hospital doing rehab after losing his leg in Iraq when a fellow vet brings him a book. Tikima challenges him to stop feeling sorry for himself with a sarcastic and honest wit that intrigues him. But she never returns like she has promised and Sam discovers that she has been murdered. He attends her funeral and decides to speak on behalf of all the vets whom her life touched. It is because of this moving tribute to a woman he met only for 10 minutes that her sister Nakayla searches Sam out, convinced that her sister had chosen Sam to help her uncover the truth of their great-great-grandfather's murder (eerily similar to Tikima's) some 90 years prior.Nakayla gives Sam a journal she discovered at Tikima's and this account, by a young boy who knew him, of great-great-grandfather Elijah Robertson's desire to bury his great uncle in the family cemetery (not an easy task considering that white undertakers would generally not touch a black person's body and this one needed to be taken from North Carolina to Georgia) will drive the investigation both into Elijah's long ago murder as well as Tikima's more recent murder. And the investigation will take them to the Biltmore Estate and Pisgah National Forest and will be wide reaching enough to touch Asheville's famous son: author Thomas Wolfe.The historical information included in this mystery is fascinating and I wondered where the lines of reality and fiction intersected. Asheville is a terribly interesting place and DeCastrique has certainly captured that. But, as noted before, I am a huge wimp about bodies and this book not only has the two main murders, but there are some collateral deaths that haunted my dreams as well. I think that mystery lovers will enjoy this greatly as it is well written and the ultimate denouement isn't easily guessed (at least for this mystery novice) until moments before the text confirms the reader's surmise. Not for me because of my life as a scaredy-cat, it is nevertheless a book many will like.