Death In Nostalgia City-Mark S. Bacon

Death In Nostalgia City

Mark S. Bacon

Black Opal Books, Sep 23 2014, $12.99

www.blackopalbooks.com

ISBN: 9781626941748

In Arizona, retired Phoenix cop Lyle Deming drives a 1973 Dodge taxi in Nostalgia City; a town that targets baby boomer tourists with its authentic 1970s replication.  With two passengers, Lyle brakes at a stop sign when he notices a driverless vehicle picking up speed while heading towards him and his fare.  He accelerates though the runaway scrapes the back of his car.  Chief of Security Clyde Bates arrives to investigate what turns out to be murder when a firefighter finds a corpse.

Nostalgia City President septuagenarian Archibald “Max: Maxwell hires Lyle to investigate surreptitiously.  Max also persuades his former employee, well over six foot relations guru Kate Sorenson to leave Vegas for Flagstaff at a time when the press is all bad.  Although both have major personal issues, Kate and Lyle form a cohesive unit looking into the lethal occurrences.  When more deadly incidents happen, Lyle and Kate begin to believe investors with an insider quisling or two are sabotaging Max’s efforts; which leads them diagonally across the country to Massachusetts where they deploy methods a cop could never use.

The investigation engages the audience especially with a six foot plus female trying to be inconspicuous.  However, the exhilarating storyline belongs to Nostalgia City’s early 1970s theme that captures much of the era’s pop culture; especially baby boomers who heard "Alone Again (Naturally)" by Gilbert O'Sullivan on AM and watched the first showing of the soaps and All in the Family. 

Harriet Klausner