A Dirty Business
When Kevin Bailey, a black, jobless twenty-something returns to New York City from a recent hermitage in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, he finds himself both broke and homeless. Armed with a degree in criminal justice, he immediately leans on an associate and former employer for a needed job referral. This leads to a position with the Frank Givens detective agency in Midtown. Bailey is hired for various reasons, three of which are the fact that he comes cheap, he's...
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When an unemployed New Yorker returns to the city from a trip to North Carolina, he soon lands a job as a private investigator and is assigned an ordinary, if slightly peculiar, case. Almost immediately after setting out on his first investigative effort, however, the case begins to lead him in various directions, and along winding paths, as several painful truths are uncovered.Midwest Book ReviewA Dirty Business, the new debut crime novel by Joe Humphrey, goes down smooth and easy, like a slug of Chivas Regal on the rocks. . . . What appears to be a straightforward case begins to unravel into a tangled web of intrigue and bizarre obsessions . . . and like a terrier on a bone, [Kevin Bailey] gnaws at it with diligence and purpose, unearthing dead bodies and intriguing red herrings that keep the reader guessing until the end.Mr. Humphrey writes with a strong sense of place and a consistent voice, with none of the pretentious tools often found in new writers. His style is simple and engaging, and the story moves, whether Bailey is in a fistfight in a parking lot or staking out a suspect and calmly observing the detailed architecture of a building. . . . Mr. Humphrey offers a touch of romance in the appearance of Amelia Helton, a delightful waitress with smooth caramel-colored skin and a ready smile who warms to Bailey and will hopefully play a larger part in the mystery series. This reader will anticipate the second book in the series, and hopes that Mr. Humphrey is writing fast.
\ Aaron LazarA Dirty Business, the new debut crime novel by Joe Humphrey, goes down smooth and easy, like a slug of Chivas Regal on the rocks. . . . What appears to be a straightforward case begins to unravel into a tangled web of intrigue and bizarre obsessions . . . and like a terrier on a bone, [Kevin Bailey] gnaws at it with diligence and purpose, unearthing dead bodies and intriguing red herrings that keep the reader guessing until the end.\ \ \ \ \ Midwest Book ReviewA Dirty Business, the new debut crime novel by Joe Humphrey, goes down smooth and easy, like a slug of Chivas Regal on the rocks. . . . What appears to be a straightforward case begins to unravel into a tangled web of intrigue and bizarre obsessions . . . and like a terrier on a bone, [Kevin Bailey] gnaws at it with diligence and purpose, unearthing dead bodies and intriguing red herrings that keep the reader guessing until the end.\ Mr. Humphrey writes with a strong sense of place and a consistent voice, with none of the pretentious tools often found in new writers. His style is simple and engaging, and the story moves, whether Bailey is in a fistfight in a parking lot or staking out a suspect and calmly observing the detailed architecture of a building. . . . Mr. Humphrey offers a touch of romance in the appearance of Amelia Helton, a delightful waitress with smooth caramel-colored skin and a ready smile who warms to Bailey and will hopefully play a larger part in the mystery series. This reader will anticipate the second book in the series, and hopes that Mr. Humphrey is writing fast.\ \
