Snowden Wright’s Queen City Detective Agency

…You are guaranteed to be glued to the pages and want to read the sequel.

author Snowden Wright is a son of the small town of Meridian, Mississippi, also known as the Queen City because of its “golden era” between 1890 and 1930, when it was the state’s largest city and a center for railroads and manufacturing. In an interview on May 10, 2023 with the online magazine Famous writing routines, He made the following statement: “When I was growing up, my overriding feeling about Mississippi was an overwhelming desire to get out of the city.” He did indeed leave home to pursue undergraduate studies at Dartmouth College and then graduate studies at Columbia University. He spent the next few years gaining extensive experience as a writer before returning to his home state.

The rich history of Queen City

Mississippi has a complicated tradition of simultaneously revering and regretting the past, which may have led to its well-deserved reputation for having produced or nurtured an impressive number of great writers and famous storytellers. They include the obvious giants of literature and history William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Tennessee Williams, Shelby Foote and Stephen Ambrose. Singer/songwriter Jimmy Buffet was born in Pascagoula. There are numerous crime, mystery and thriller writers, including Nevada Barr, John Grisham, Carolyn Haines, Chester Himes, Greg Iles, Thomas Harris and too many others to mention here.

Snowden Wright’s future seemed to be foretold, as he received the Storyteller Award as a child at Strong River Camp for the stories he told his roommates. He said, “So at that crucial age I was faced with a choice: either grow up to be a pathological liar or grow up to be a paid pathological liar. The answer seemed clear.” His storytelling and captivating writing style have already earned him a place at the table with other Mississippi greats through his novels. Play Pretty Blues, American Pop and the soon-to-be bestseller The Queen City Detective Agency.

Inspired by a murder trial conducted by the author’s father, who was then serving as a district attorney, this work of fiction is an intricately constructed Southern noir novel set in 1985. It seems as though the entire town is embroiled in a criminal conspiracy after the shooting of Randall Hubbard, an ambitious real estate developer who built shopping malls in black neighborhoods.

Dixie Mafia (DM) member Lewis “Turnip” Coogan claimed that Odette Hubbard, the victim’s battered wife, hired him for the murder but canceled at the last minute. He accused Odette of carrying out the job herself. Turnip’s unexplained confession was enough to send him to prison, but while he was there he jumped from the prison roof under highly suspicious circumstances. Odette was also detained pending the investigation and was soon to be released, but before that could happen she too died prematurely in custody.

Criminal gang with a racist past

The Meridian Dixie Mafia specialized in recruiting foot soldiers for various criminal gang activities from underemployed, semi-educated white supremacist criminals and making them feel like they were part of a movement. During Prohibition, the DM was primarily involved in all aspects of liquor smuggling, but later branched out and expanded its illegal activities tremendously.

Conveniently located two hours from Birmingham, three from New Orleans, and four from Atlanta, the Queen City was actively involved in gambling, drug and sex trafficking, organized crime, contract killings, and similar left-handed enterprises. Although this was not the case throughout the South, local members were often “former” Klansmen. Many of these men had been drafted into the U.S. Army straight out of high school and sent to Vietnam, where they learned to fight an often invisible enemy. They were used to following orders and had little to no qualms about killing.

These civilian police officers included people like the dimwitted Harold John, who saluted daily to a shiny framed photograph of Holocaust denier David Duke. Duke founded the Louisiana-based Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in 1974 and became its youngest Grand Wizard. He later served as a Louisiana state legislator. Harold and a few of his friends practically worshipped him. The identity of Meridian’s DM leader was discreetly kept secret, kept from the leadership levels under a strict “need-to-know” policy, and certainly from the top echelons of the city’s elite.

Private detective takes over the case

Clementine Rosemary Baldwin “Clem” is a highly intelligent, disillusioned former cop who quit the force to become a private investigator. She founded the Queen City Detective Agency and worked alone until she hired former Green Beret and high school football star Dixon Hicks as a partner. A pragmatic black ex-cop in mid-1980s Mississippi who had experienced almost constant hostility, belittlement, and rejection in the field, Clem concluded that to succeed in her profession, she needed “a pillar of support” that could best be provided by a white man. And it worked! Her client base increased dramatically after Dixon joined her agency. The unexpected bonus was the friendship with a competent, intelligent man she could trust with her life.

Clem’s early life was a balancing act between trying to fit into the two different worlds of the old and new South, despite not fully identifying with either. She never met her mother, Rosemary, who died giving birth to her. Rosemary was black and came from a poor family, while Clem’s father, Lauder Baldwin, came from prominent, influential white landed gentry. She grew up in a large, beautiful house in an exclusive neighborhood where passersby would all too often ask, “Is your mother the maid here?” as she played on the expansive front lawn.

The Baldwins were charter members of the Lakeshoals Country Club, where her father played golf and did business while she swam and lunched poolside. Clem was still a paying member (#926) but rarely attended events. Tall, handsome, green-eyed and charismatic, Lauder Baldwin was a registered gemologist who owned a jewelry store and also worked as a fence for stolen items on the side. He served his first light sentence when his only child was seven.

She was sent to live with her mother’s relatives, who loved her very much but were disturbed when they realized she didn’t like being poor. Lauder returned as an honest jeweler, but is currently in prison for another crime. Clem compensates by drinking too much and eating too little, but under the influence of a recent relationship with teetotaling Assistant District Attorney Russ Clyde, she begins to change her unhealthy habits. He was the first suitor introduced to her mother’s relatives, and although they grow closer, the familial jury is still debating their opinions. Clem has some concerns about an observed secret handshake that culminated in a pinky-finger-lock between Russ and a college buddy she considers a known racist.

Hush money and contract killers

The action began when Turnip Coogan’s grieving mother, Lenora Coogan, picked up the phone and hired these private investigators to find her son’s killers. Ironically, this poor white woman used the hush money she was paid by the Dixie Mafia to accept his death as a suicide. She chose Clem, knowing that a black woman would be one of the few people in Meridian with no ties to the DM.

His pregnant young widow, Molly Coogan, also came forward, eager to have her husband’s death ruled a murder, since his insurance company would not pay out the $75,000 policy if he had committed suicide. The toxicology report Clem retrieved from a spindle at the police station clearly showed that old Turnip had been poisoned and was half dead even before the “suicidal leap.” This supported her theories that he knew too much about his DM employers and their executives.

Arson, rising casualty rates, a non-fatal shooting in the underworld paradise John Wesley Hardin Club, followed by a car bomb attack, poisonings, corrupt police officers and shootings by executives make The Queen City Detective Agency a gripping mystery thriller. Until the last page, the survival of Clem Baldwin and Dixon Hicks, who were clearly the targets of assassins, is uncertain.

Snowden Wright has written a solid, exciting thriller with The Queen City Detective Agency. It is guaranteed to keep you hooked and wanting a sequel. Fans of James Lee Burke, John Grisham, Laura Lippman and Walter Mosley will enjoy reading this and his other works.

Release date: 13.08.2024

Genre: Crime, Historical Novel, Mystery

Author: Snowden Wright

Number of pages: 272 pages

Editor: William Morrow

ISBN: 978006296358