My Darling Detective

[An] ingeniously plotted novel . . . Norman knows how to weave an enticing and satisfying mystery one tantalizing thread at a time. -- <em>New York Times Book Review</em> <p/><strong>A witty engrossing homage to noir from National Book Award finalist Howard Norman</strong> <p/> Jacob Rigolet soon-to-be former assistant to a wealthy art collector looks up from his seat at an auction--his mother former head librarian at the Halifax Free Library is walking almost casually up the aisle. Before a stunned audience she flings an open jar of ink at master photographer Robert Capa's <em>Death on a Leipzig Balcony.</em> Jacob's police detective fiancée is assigned to the ensuing interrogation. <br> <em>My Darling Detective</em> delivers a fond nod to classic noir as Jacob's understanding of the man he has always assumed to be his father unravels against the darker truth of Robert Emil a police officer suspected of murdering two Jewish residents during an upswing of anti-Semitism in 1945. The denouement involving a dire shootout and an emergency delivery--it's the second Rigolet to be born in the Halifax library in a three decades--is Howard Norman at his uncannily moving best. <p/> Norman works with an offhand ease and grace . . . Whimsy is balanced by moments of powerfully evoked realism. -- <em>Washington Post</em> <p/> An unconventional lively literary mystery. -- <em>Kirkus Reviews</em>