Author: David Fulmer
Cover Artist: Kelly Eismann
Publisher: Harcourt Books
Binding: Hardcover
Publication Date: January 2008
Reading the noirish detective mystery novel The Blue Door by author David Fulmer, winner of the Shamus Award for Best First P.I. Novel Chasing the Devil’s Tail, is like taking a step back into time. It is very atmospheric, and is evocative of a smoky 1960′s R&B Philly bar (Philadelphia is the book’s setting).
Eddie Cero, the main character, is a tough ex-boxer who is smart enough to get out of the fighting game after he receives a head butt by his nemesis T-Bone Mieux that opens up a gash above his eye. Though he has beaten Mieux twice before, the head-butt is the decisive factor that costs him the third fight against his rival. Still, when he’s offered a job by private detective Sal Giambroni, whom he rescues from being beaten up by two punks in a Philadelphia alley, he’s reluctant at first to give up boxing, and he doesn’t think much about the profession Sal is employed in.
Eddie can use the money, however, especially while he’s recovering from his last fight, so he agrees to work part-time for Sal. He is especially interested in the disappearance of singer Johnnie Post, of the group the Excels. This is both because Cero is a fan of jazz, the blues, and R&B, and because he’s intrigued by the singer’s beautiful sultry sister Valerie, who has a gig singing at the Blue Door bar. He’s warned by Sal not to ever get involved with a client, and to not cross the race line, but he can’t help from feeling an attraction to Valerie.
Sal doesn’t want Eddie to bother much with the Pope case. It was three years ago, after all, and ancient history. Besides, he’s got other, more lucrative cases for Cero to work on, and he soon starts relying on Eddie more and more, and letting some of his other employees go. The cases are gritty, and show Eddie that being a detective is not as glamorous as some movies might make it look.
For example, there is one case where Eddie’s job is to tail a high school girl whose parents suspect may be getting involved in things she shouldn’t be doing. He watches her for a while, following her home after school, and nothing seems to be out of the ordinary. Then, one day he is at the school’s parking lot at lunchtime, and sees her driving someone else;s car to a house, getting out, all dolled up, and entering it. He notices her doing it several days in a row, and she’s greeted by a much older man, who hugs her intimately. He informs Sal, takes pictures of her comings and goings, and it becomes apparent the young lady is prostituting herself.
When they present their findings to the girl’s parents, they don’t want to act as if it’s true. They live in a wealthy neighborhood, and live an Ozzie & Hariet type of existence. But when they hear that the name of the man’s house their daughter is going to is Richard G Barnes, they both react as if they know the name. That’s because the same guy has had sex with the girl’s mother, and though both parents realize this, they don’t want to admit any defects in their on the surface perfect lives.
Discovering the truth about what happened to Johnnie Pope becomes an obsession for Eddie. He pursues leads and questions everyone who had anything to do with Johnnie and the Excels, including their agent and their record producer, George Roddy, who owed money to the mob due to heavy gambling losses. Supposedly, Johnnie suspected that Roddy was stealing money from the group, and wanted to make a break and form his own label.
When two other members of the Excels are murdered, Eddie thinks that maybe he should have listened to Sal and Valerie when they told him to leave the past alone. He feels guilty, as if he was responsible for the deaths of Ray Pope and Tommy Gates through his continued quest to find out Johnnie’s fate. That doesn’t stop him, though, from seeking the answers he wants.
Eddie Cero is reminiscent of a combination between a pre-brain damaged Rocky Balboa and Lew Archer on his first case. Cero hasn’t yet learned all of the ropes, and sometimes pisses off his boos, Sal, by making rookie errors in judgment; but, he’s tenacious and as loyal as a bulldog, and he gets the job done. Eddie is hesitant to fill out the P.I. application that Sal eventually hands him, feeling he’s not quite ready to make that step, but Sal clearly feels he’s ready. Cero is a likable character and I’d like to read more Eddie Cero mysteries in the future, if David Fulmer decides to continue writing about him.
If you’re a fan of only the type of mysteries you might see on PBS, or ones that feature deductive geniuses like Poirot or Holmes, you probably won’t get into The Blue Door. But, if you’re like me and like to read a wide range of mysteries, including some that feature gritty gumshoes like Marlowe and Spade, The Blue Door will be a welcome addition to your reading lists.
