The Good Know Nothing: A Tom Hickey Novel
Enter a world of dust and desperation, where poverty and corruption are rife and casual violence is the norm. It’s 1936, and after nearly 11 years on the LAPD, Detective Tom Hickey, a man with more scruples than most, has developed a moral code he can live with. But when a family friend gives him an old manuscript and tells a long-concealed story about Tom’s father, Charlie, who abandoned his crazy wife and two children decades prior, Tom risks his job, family, and even his life to find answers. He needs to know Charlie’s motives for fleeing and what became of him since; maybe he’s even still alive.
The contents of the handwritten sheets bear a remarkable resemblance to a published novel, which gives Tom several clues. In this atmospheric southwestern noir, the writing is lean, edgy, and action-packed as Tom follows a trail that’s still as dangerous and red hot as the Arizona desert. The temperature rises off the pages as he drives his Chevrolet out to Tucson, and trouble follows him constantly. Convincingly melded into the story are many real-life characters, including Aimee Semple McPherson, the evangelist preacher who employs Tom’s sister, Florence; newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, who buys his politics via the media; and a man who may or may not be a notorious outlaw. Both Florence, a gorgeous dame with brains, and Tom’s wife, Madeline, a redheaded torch singer, have their moments in the spotlight, too.
The Good Know Nothing is seventh and last in Kuhlken’s California Century series, but because the books are non-consecutive, readers can start at any point. They should hide the dust jacket before beginning, though. In a crime thriller, especially, the blurb shouldn’t give so much of the story away.
