Nameless Dame: Murder on the Russian River

by Bart Schneider

Overview

The Russian River Valley—laid-back, marijuana-steeped, and off-the-grid—is the backdrop for Bart Schneider’s new mystery featuring the tough and dogged detective Augie Boyer.

Augie takes a break from the bite of another Minnesota winter by visiting the California homestead of his longtime friend Bobby Sabbatini, who is celebrating the opening of his poetry-infused tavern, Ginsberg’s Galley. But Augie’s notoriety precedes him, and his arrival is met with a trip to a murder scene. Ruthie Rosenberg, a local who has fallen into a life of drugs and dependence, has been found at The Last Judgment Campground, shot twice in the head.

At the request of the Deputy Jesse Coolican, who’s loved Ruthie for years, Augie promises to investigate the case himself. No sooner than he starts to ask questions, Augie discovers the trail leading to Ruthie’s killer—or killers—is tangled with politics, religion, bold-faced lies, and suspicious double-lives. Even his closest friends are part of the fray.

Is Ruthie’s murder the work of a copycat? An escalated statement by the religious right? Only an outsider can discover the painful truth—and Augie must work quickly before the insular community buries the truth deep among its ever-growing secrets.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781593764357
Publisher:	Catapult
Publication date:	02/21/2012
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Bart Schneider grew up in San Francisco. He recently returned to the Bay Area after spending 25 years in Minnesota, where he was the founding editor of Hungry Mind Review and Speakeasy Magazine. He is the author of a poetry collection, Water for a Stranger, and four novels, Blue Bossa, Secret Love, Beautiful Inez, and Man in the Blizzard. His last novel, Nameless Dame, appeared in March 2012.

Editorial Reviews

Schneider’s second Augie Boyer mystery (after 2008’s The Man in the Blizzard) takes the marijuana-smoking Midwestern PI out of Minneapolis and off his drug of choice only to deposit him in the pot-saturated heart of Northern California’s Russian River Valley. Soon after Augie arrives at the “off-the-grid” cottage of his onetime assistant, Blossom, and her former police detective husband, Bobby Sabbatini, Ruthie Rosenberg, a party girl and drug user, is found murdered. While the killing dampens the area’s optimistic New Age spirit, Augie is more interested in Blossom’s friend Quince, an enticing and mercurial ex-con. Bobby, meanwhile, tries to keep the approaching opening of his “poetry karaoke bar,” Ginsberg’s Galley, on track. Rather than hackneyed drug humor, Schneider focuses on showing a community that, under Bobby’s spell, has fallen in love with poetry. His charming and original characters should ensure returning readers for any future Augie Boyer outings. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"Schneider’s vision of a world where everyone, high and low, criminal and otherwise, is susceptible to the clarion call of poetry is somewhere between parody and utopia, but either way, it’s utterly delightful. —Booklist

"Rather than hackneyed drug humor, Schneider focuses on showing a community that . . . has fallen in love with poetry. His charming and original characters should ensure returning readers for any future Augie Boyer outings." —Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

Minneapolis private eye Augie Boyer (The Man in the Blizzard, 2008, etc.) spends some time in Sonoma County, with equally shaggy results. Augie's friend Bobby Sabbatini has undertaken an even longer journey. A St. Paul homicide cop who retired to the Russian River hamlet of Guerneville, he's about to open a poetry karaoke bar where like-minded folks can spout Walt Whitman and Wallace Stevens and refresh themselves between verses. Augie's visit to Bobby, his wife Blossom and their baby Milosz doesn't go exactly as planned. No sooner has he arrived than the town is buzzing over the murder of wild child masseuse Ruthie Rosenberg, a local fixture shot execution-style in the Last Judgment Campground. Deputy Jesse Coolican, who's long carried a torch for Ruthie, is so hard hit that Augie's assigned to stay with him instead of Bobby and Blossom--a good thing, since they're now entertaining a new arrival, Bobby's "new wife" Quince, who's helping out the couple and sleeping in what Augie thought of as his bed. (Not that Augie would mind sharing it with her.) Is the murder linked to the shooting years ago of two Christian kids on Fish Head Beach? To Rev. Cecil Hyde's vociferously anti-poetry ministry at the First Christ River of Blood Church? To a pair of Russian entrepreneurs' plan to open a casino on the Russian River? And who's going to solve the case while the most-likely sleuths keep themselves busy smoking up? The mystery plot commands so little attention that you know it's a throwaway. The big attractions here are Augie's voice, the loopy milieu and the recitation of more poems, new and old, than you've seen in the genre for a coon's age.

Kirkus Reviews