num_pages: 245
description: A witty engrossing homage to noir from National Book Award finalist Howard NormanJacob Rigolet a soon-to-be former assistant to a wealthy art collector looks up from his seat at an auctionhis mother former head librarian at the Halifax Free Library is walking almost casually up the aisle. Before a stunned audience she flings an open jar of black ink at master photographer Robert Capas Death on a Leipzig Balcony. Jacobs police detective fiance Martha Crauchet is assigned to the ensuing interrogation. In My Darling Detective Howard Norman delivers a fond nod to classic noir as Jacobs understanding of the man he has always assumed to be his father unravels against the darker truth of Robert Emil a Halifax police officer suspected but never convicted of murdering two Jewish residents during the shocking upswing of anti-Semitism in 1945. The denouement involving a dire shootout and an emergency deliveryits the second Rigolet to be born in the Halifax Free Library in a span of three decadesis Howard Norman at his provocative . . . haunting* and uncannily moving best.- Janet Maslin New York Times
language: English
title: My Darling Detective
publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt