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Following an unforgettable cast of characters and a jaded female P.I. enmeshed in a criminal conspiracy in 1980s Mississippi, "The Queen City Detective Agency" is a riveting, razor-sharp Southern noir that unravels the greed, corruption, and racism at the heart of the American Dream.At the August edition of Writers at the Wrecking Bar, A Cappella Books welcomes back acclaimed "American Pop" author Snowden Wright to celebrate the release of his latest book, "The Queen City Detective Agency."
Presented in partnership with Stuckey's.
About the Book
Meridian, Mississippi—once known as the Queen City for its status in the state—has lost much of its royal bearing by 1985. Overshadowed by more prosperous cities such as New Orleans and Atlanta, Meridian attracts less-than-legitimate businesses, including those enforced by the near-mythical Dixie Mafia. The city’s powerbrokers, wealthy white Southerners clinging to their privilege, resent any attempt at change to the old order.
Real-estate developer Randall Hubbard took advantage of Meridian’s economic decline by opening strip malls that catered to low-income families in Black neighborhoods—until he wound up at the business end of a .38 Special. Then a Dixie Mafia affiliate named Lewis “Turnip” Coogan, who claims Hubbard’s wife hired him for the hit, dies under suspicious circumstances while in custody for the murder.
Ex-cop turned private investigator Clementine Baldwin is hired by Coogan’s bereaved mother to find her son’s killer. A woman struggling with her own history growing up in Mississippi, Clem braves the Queen City’s corridors of crime as she digs into the case, opening wounds long forgotten.
She soon finds herself in the crosshairs of powerful and dangerous people who manipulate the law for their own ends—and will K*ll anyone who threatens to reveal their secrets.
About the Author
Born and raised in Mississippi, Snowden Wright is the author of "American Pop," a Wall Street Journal WSJ+ Book of the Month and NPR Best Book of the Year. He has written for The Atlantic, Salon, Esquire, The Millions, and the New York Daily News, among other publications, and previously worked as a fiction reader at The New Yorker, Esquire, and The Paris Review. Wright was a Marguerite and Lamar Smith Fellow at the Carson McCullers Center, and his small-press debut, "Play Pretty Blues," received the Summer Literary Seminar’s Graywolf Prize. He lives in Yazoo County, Mississippi.
About Writers at the Wrecking Bar
A Cappella Books presents Writers at the Wrecking Bar, a series of live author interview events showcasing some of the country's freshest voices in literary and contemporary fiction. Each program includes writers in conversation with an arbiter of Atlanta's book scene, giving the audience a chance to experience and participate in the Q&A and get a signed copy of the book. Held upstairs in the Marianna Room of the Wrecking Bar Brewpub, Writers at the Wrecking Bar hosts a cash bar, starting at 7 PM. The author conversation and book signing follow at 7:30 PM.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Wrecking Bar Brewpub, Marianna, 292 Moreland Ave NE, Atlanta, GA 30307, United States,Atlanta, Georgia
