Drink the Tea

Kaufman, the winner of the PWA Best First Private Eye Novel Competition, introduces an unusual PI, a former foster child, in his impressive debut. Too often in mystery fiction a character’s difficult upbringing is tacked on, but Willis Gidney bears emotional scars from being abandoned that are both convincing and relevant to the story line. Jazz great Steps Jackson, a friend of the D.C. gumshoe, hires Gidney to locate his long-lost daughter. Gidney, who normally serves subpoenas, attracts the interest of a creepy private security firm and an ambitious right-wing politician. After a lead takes him to Colette Andrews, the wife of the former Virginia state attorney general, Colette turns up shot to death, and the police suspect Gidney of having pulled the trigger. While one coincidental development will raise eyebrows, Kaufman, a director and cameraman who twice won the Gordon Parks Award for cinematography, pulls off a taut, compelling tale of violence and corruption. (Mar.)