Missing You in Atlantic City
Middle-aged and out-of-shape Meg Daniels tags along with former private investigator Andy Beck, her boyfriend – how she hates that word! – on his trip to Atlantic City, a temporary casino security gig. They meet Johnny Angelino, a Sinatra impersonator, at the lounge. Angelino begs them to look into his mother’s disappearance during the 1964 Democratic Convention in Atlantic City. Meg has time on her hands and agrees to check it out. She quickly discovers that the police investigation was shoddy. What’s more, whoever killed Johnny’s young mother all those years ago may still be dangerous.
Author Kelly brings in both the 1960s bouffant hairdos as well as the ugly racism of the era. In particular she highlights the dramatic story of the African-American delegates from Mississippi who came to Atlantic City to protest their state’s all-white delegation. Mississippi’s delegates were all white because just a tiny percentage of African-American Mississippians had been allowed to register to vote.
This mystery just about defines fun beach read, and although the historical sections take a second place to the contemporary, they’re well researched and evocative. Kelly’s characters are funny, wry, smart, and all too human. This whodunit went by way too fast.
