Motor City Shakedown

Set in Detroit in 1911, Johnson's vibrant follow-up to The Detroit Electric Scheme delivers razor-sharp depictions of the motor city. Will Anderson, a member of the family that owns the Anderson Electric Car Company (formerly the Anderson Carriage Company), is determined to bring to justice the killers of a close friend, Wesley McRae, who was murdered by thugs seven months earlier. Anderson, who's become a morphine addict after using the narcotic to dull the pain from the loss of some fingers on his right hand, gets a line on Carlo Moretti, the driver for one of the men behind McRae's death, mobster Vito Adamo. But before Anderson can confront Moretti, someone else slits the driver's throat, and Anderson himself becomes the prime suspect for Moretti's murder. Johnson brings the turbulence and rampant corruption of the era to life through his flawed yet tenacious lead in this worthy successor to his debut. (Sept.)