J.E. Fishman's "Cadaver Blues"

Author J.E. Fishman

Just finished the second installment of Cadaver Blues, an excellent noirish mystery by J.E. Fishman, and enjoyed it thoroughly. The book is online, to be read for free, at The Nervous Breakdown. It’s being published as a weekly serial, with a new chapter appearing every Sunday.

Fishman’s got an interesting hero, Phuoc Goldberg, a private detective and self-described bantamweight, “slightly built, not tall, barely 120 pounds after a big dinner.” Yet he’s strong enough, smart enough and wiry enough to take on the big guys. With a name like Phuoc, Goldberg also says he has “something of a facial obsession. Or, to be more polite to myself, a high level of racial awareness.” He then goes on to clarify:

It’s not that I believe in assigning particular characteristics to a given race of humans. Just the opposite, in fact. I have my radar finely tuned to the racial distinctions that all people make, and I’m rarely disappointed in my cynicism about the intentions of others.

The writing is excellent, as it should be, given the author’s experience. Fishman is a former magazine editor, Doubleday book editor and literary agent. Read more about him at The Nervous Breakdown.

Starting the day with Boney James.