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Fiction Private Investigators

Straight No Chaser

A Crang Mystery

by (author) Jack Batten

Publisher
Dundurn Press
Initial publish date
May 2011
Category
Private Investigators, Hard-Boiled, General
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780887627477
    Publish Date
    May 2011
    List Price
    $16.95
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780887628337
    Publish Date
    May 2011
    List Price
    $6.99

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Description

Classic Batten – on the rocks.

Jazz. Cocaine. Vietnamese triads. Dope-dealing yuppie lawyers. Jack Batten’s got them all in his second mystery novel starring Crang, the unconventional criminal lawyer with a taste for straight vodka and a nose for trouble. This time out Crang is hired by his buddy Dave Goddard, a sax player whose playing style is from the fifties, but whose unwitting involvement in a complex coke-smuggling ring is pure eighties.

Crang’s friendly offer to help Dave find out who is tailing him takes a reluctant sleuth into a series of unlikely locales: behind the scenes at Toronto’s oh-so-chic film festival; into a triad-run afterhours boozecan; and into the gang’s inner sanctum, the office of Big Bam, the ring’s genial but deadly kingpin.

No one could ever accuse Crang of being a superhero, but with his usual mixture of innate cool and naive enthusiasm he brings the villains to justice and readers to the end of a cleverly entertaining romp that leaves us looking forward to Crang’s next case.

About the author

Jack Batten practised law in Toronto for four years before turning to a life of writing. He has written for all the major Canadian magazines and is the author of thirty-three books including four crime novels. Five of his nonfiction books dealt with real-life Canadian lawyers, judges, and court cases; a biography of John Robinette was among these books. Batten's books have also dealt with sports, Canadian history, and biography. He has reviewed jazz for The Globe and Mail, movies for CBC radio, and still writes a column on crime fiction for the Toronto Star. His biography of Tom Longboat won the $10,000 Norma Fleck Award for best children's nonfiction in 2002, and the book is being made into a feature film. His most recent book is The Annex: The Story of a Toronto Neighbourhood, published in 2004.

Jack Batten's profile page

Excerpt: Straight No Chaser: A Crang Mystery (by (author) Jack Batten)

Fenk's face was the color of a Santa Claus suit. His mouth was slack, and his eyes popped in a way that made the irises seem smaller and the white parts larger. He didn't look as bad-tempered in death as in life. He looked scared. The cord must have hurt like hell.
"Oh my God."
"What the matter?" James asked, holding position at the door.
"Nothing that's part of your job," I answered James.
I opened the saxophone case. No strap. I looked back at Fenk. The strap was buried in his neck, the strap that held Dave Goddard's saxophone when he played it.

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