Atlanta Blues

Atlanta Blues pulls the reader into a mystery that stands out in a glutted market. Most of the action filters through the eye of a reporter named Ben who frequently connects with his friends on the police force. Ben sometimes rides in the cop car with his buddy; other times he arrives at the scene while the forensics team works. As a result, there is no barrier between the reader and the narrator. The story begins with the somewhat jaded reporter Ben talking to a mother whose daughter is missing. The mother hopes the reporter will do a story that might turn up some information. The reporter debates writing the article, because he knows that regardless of what happens, he's in between a rock and a hard spot. "God," says Ben's editor, "if she shows up on her momma's doorstep tomorrow, or even Sunday, we're gonna have egg on our faces." That one statement goes to the heart of investigative reporting that depends on controversy but aims at hope. The book explores the underworld in Atlanta about 30 years ago, as Atlanta was experiencing explosive growth. Author Robert Lamb worked for The Atlanta Constitution during that period, so he knows his setting and subjects well. The reader will journey to bars, porn shops, and crime scenes and the journey is replete with factual information and characters well-drawn. Ben is working a story and sitting in a hamburger joint when a man walks up and says, "That chick in red harder to pick up than a watermelon seed. Must be savin' it fo' Christmas." Lamb is Southern, and he forms his characters well, in terms of speech and mannerisms. Atlanta Blues creates an in-depth look at reporters and cops; it does so with an objective attitude that gives the reader more to think about than your average mystery. Woven within the mystery are a love story and a moral predicament at the end, when the reporter must decide what to do about information he receives. A murder has been committed, but in light of the circumstances, it was justifiable. A court would convict the perpetrator, but the victim deserved what he got. The book concludes with Ben's decision and wraps up the stories of all the characters. Atlanta Blues is a mystery that is different because it focuses on the human condition rather than taking a rapid-fire approach to story-telling where emphasis is on plot rather than character. Robert Lamb is a gifted writer, and it's evident in these pages. I'd highly recommend this book for anyone who loves a good mystery and strong writing.

Beyond Atlanta's gleaming office towers and sterile convention halls is another place for the men who wear the blue uniform of its police force. For them, it is a city where murder, prostitution, seedy bars, strip joints and blue movie houses are parts of everyday life. Robert Lamb has done a masterful job of depicting how policing Atlanta's mean streets affects their lives and the lives of the people they care for and who care about them. I was Lamb's editor when he covered Atlanta's soft underbelly of sin for The Atlanta Constitution back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and I know he writes the truth. His descriptions put you at the scene, and his characters are people you care about. Everyone gets the blues from time to time, but none compares to what a cop on the beat sees and hears and faces. If you're looking for a good mystery, this one has several twists that will keep you guessing, but in the end the most important message is what happens when the blues take their toll.

If you only buy one book for yourself this fall, make it "Atlanta Blues." Written by a former journalist, "Atlanta Blues" is a page turner from page one. Writer Robert Lamb weaves a thrilling story involving a newspaper reporter, Ben Blake, whose compassion for a mother whose college-age daughter is missing sends him to the streets of Atlanta -- and its darker side streets as well. Mr. Lamb is remarkably skilled at giving life to his characters. It's easy to visualize Ben Blake in search of the missing young woman, and equally easy to visualize the two police officers who join him in this search. But as good as the characterizations are, it is Robert Lamb's story-telling ability that truly makes this book a wonderful read. For those of us who love crime stories, this is a must! It is not a stretch to imagine that this book would make a fascinating movie.

I spent two years on Atlanta's streets as a police reporter for the Atlanta Constitution. Robert Lamb has gotten it just right. I was drawn back 25 years to that world of patrol cars with vinyl seats, after-hours cop bars where the winding down happened, nasty night clubs and flop houses, prostitutes, drunks, smelly warehouses on searches for illicit drugs and walking with a homicide detective up a dark and ominous street looking for the "perp" from the body we'd left behind us. This is not just another good mystery, it's a story about cops and reporters. The characters are skillfully drawn and truly come alive as the reader is drawn through a twisting tale through Atlanta's interesting scene. There is the urgency of the chase the danger of death and the poignancy of painful loss - not to mention the keen curiosity and lust for the story that every good police reporter has and that Lamb shares with us. This is as satisfying a mystery as I have read in many, many years. There is no hyperbole in this excellent and intriguing story. It really happens just like this. This is Lamb's second novel and I hope he favors us with many more.