River City Blues

By: Ward Howarth

Narrated by: Ward Paxton

Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

It's early 1944 and Richmond, Virginia is a devil's paradise. Ration scams and police corruption are rampant while the inflated black market commands top dollar.

Detective Sergeant Bennie Sherwood, fresh off a soul-scarring tour of duty with the Marines, couldn't care less. His old man was recently murdered under suspect circumstances, and he's on a hunt for the truth.

But then an old friend is killed during a botched black market raid and Bennie is thrust onto a hellride through Richmond's underworld. Suddenly, he's at the front lines of a new kind of war, one that's played out in gentlemen's clubs and back alleys between tobacco kingpins and numbers runners.

It's a dark, twisted journey that will test Bennie's every limit, even as it gets him closer to the truth about his father...

Until, that is, he's framed for murder.

Now the subject of a citywide manhunt, Bennie must choose - disappear into the shadows and succumb to his fractured mind, or confront his darkest fears and root out the evil that has infested his city.

©2016 Ward Howarth (P)2017 Ward Howarth

Tangled murders and a black market

1944 Richmond, Virginia is a gritty place and the local police department is part of that grit. Detective Bennie Sherwood has a lot of issues – his farther was murdered in the line of duty, he’s suffering from PTSD from his time at Guadalcanal, and now a friend has died in a suspicious manner. How crooked is the PD? How much can he rely on the intel on the black market? Bennie will have to figure it all out once he’s framed for murder, or go into hiding and never have his answers.

This was a pretty good noir detective story and I liked that our main character, Bennie, had so many issues. He’s suffering from PTSD well before our society really knew what that was and how to deal with it. The murder of his father, Detective Samuel Sherwood, is a big painful throbbing question mark in his life that is only 5 months old. But he’s got a job to do. He and his partner Detective Niles Hunter are set up to raid the black market along with Detectives Mills & Reed. However, things don’t go as expected there either. Skipper Holly, an old friend of Bennie’s father, is part of the black market and he’s mortally wounded during the raid. His presence there shakes Bennie up pretty badly. Right off the bat, I was caught up in this tale. I felt immersed in Sherwood’s world.

The Victory Squad and the wartime crime it was created to fight really fascinated me. I hadn’t really thought about how certain limited supplies during the wartime would have such a violent-riddled black market. There’s cheats and thieves and dealers in such numbers that you can’t help but trip over them. I really felt the author did his research homework and brought that to life in this novel. The missing gasoline was a nice side mystery.

The tale does have one weakness and that is the lack of female characters. I would have liked to see more of the ladies even if we do have one woman who’s a mechanic and a cab driver. She’s also a romantic interest and much of her page time is spent in that role.

The story includes some racism, sexism, and homophobia that was prevalent during the 1940s. I felt it was realistically portrayed without being gratuitous. I appreciate the author not veering away from this bit of historical accuracy. Humans are flawed, even our hero Bennie. I did get a kick out of how the acronyms SNAFU, FUBAR, and SUSFU were cleaned up a bit, substituting ‘fouled’ for the F word. While not necessary for me, I’m sure others appreciate it.

I liked the mystery surrounding Jedidiah King and his King Tobacco cigarettes. Skipper worked for him and that makes him a person of interest in the ongoing black market investigations. I also liked the Police Chief, The Cane, since he acts like a loud, demanding police chief. While such common character types sometimes made the story a bit predictable, it also felt like I was reading an old friend. It was easy to sink into this story.

I received a free copy of this book.

The Narration: Ward Paxton makes a really good noir detective. His voice for Bennie is a bit more gentle than the other cops, but since we get Bennie’s inner thoughts, I felt this was appropriate. Paxton did great with the regional accents of the time and place as well, keeping all the characters distinct. There were few females but I felt they could have used a touch more femininity in the narration.

It was the jungle, all over again

What did you love best about River City Blues?

Oh, it was a very engrossing listen. I was taken back to the 40s, but the struggles feel ever-so-fresh. There's racial prejudice - downplayed, but present - and homophobia. There's PSTD, and love, and loyalty.

Will this book revolutionize the genre? No, but it did a damn fine job fitting in and entertaining me. I took a star from storytelling because while I felt for Benny and some other people that had their story revealed by the end, I didn't get attached to many of the other characters, really.

What does Ward Paxton bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Ward Paxton sounds so badass. No, really! I don't think I would have been able to get the same enjoyment from the book had I not heard it in his voice - I think I would have imagined a completely different one.

At times it was really easy to imagine I was in the 40s, in a smoky detective's office, and Ward Paxton telling me this story standing next to a window complete with a fedora, coat, and cigarette. It would be a rainy night, the sound of sirens echoing in the empty streets...

...that's the kind of vibe I got.

Any additional comments?

When I asked for a free copy in exchange for an honest review, I didn't know what to expect. This is not a perfect book, but I got a "Makes me want to smoke a cigarette while looking out of some half open venetian blinds on to a rainy street and internally explain my story of lust greed and betrayal" feeling.

I had noir jazz playing quietly while reading, and I do recommend this to any future reader, by the way.

Dark, Gritty and Powerful !!

This gripping thriller is full of mystery and suspense, plot twists and surprises. If you like espionage & Police Procedural, pulp thrillers, murder thrillers, men's or women's adventure, books & hard-boiled mystery thriller suspense & action, you will not be able to put this down & the end will have you begging for more.A fiction reader’s delight!  River City Blue's  has villains you will despise and heroes you’d love to meet. Add intrigue, and betrayal, and you’ll be captured by the Powerful and Realistic Narration by Ward Paxton, and long for Ward Howarth's next novel!

A tale of Richmond's Underworld

This was an excellent debut by Ward Howarth! I loved how he weaved Richmond's historic landmarks throughout this novel. Bennie is back from the war and trying to clean up the black market ring while wrestling with his inner demons. And he needs solve his father's murder. I was intrigued by this detective story full of underworld activity and police corruption that I couldn't stop listening! I hope this becomes a series. I would like to know what will happen next for Bennie. Or even what Bennie was like before and during the war. I thoroughly enjoyed this and hope the author has more in store!

Courageous Crime Fighter

I very much enjoyed River City Blues. It's an interesting portrayal of the WWII era in Richmond, VA. Bennie Sherwood comes home after serving in the Marines and gets a detective job in the police department. Author Ward Howarth writes a gritty story about two investigations that are on a collision course. The dialogue was realistic and the developments in the cases come together for an exciting ending. I listened to the audiobook version narrated by Ward Paxton whose style makes the moody and tough character's lives seem very real. The bad language in a few spots didn't bother me at all because it is so in keeping with the characters.

Tense and Noir Thriller

River City Blues. .
Tense and gripping Noir police thriller set in 1940's. Corrupt cops and brutal cops make this a no hold barred story.
The violence portrayed is not graphic and there is no bad language by today's standards, though a few of the tetms used are not politically correct today.
Superb narration.
It is the authors first novel and I really hope he continues writing as I would love to read more from him.
I received a free copy of this audio book at my own request and voluntarily leave this honest review. .

History and mystery with noir feel

Any additional comments?

A good blend of historical Richmond as a backdrop for a scarred former WWII marine turned detective. Intriguing plot and characters that are well narrated make for a good listen. I would let listen to more from the author. I was voluntarily provided this review copy audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator.

Wartime Memories

I love books about. this period of time. I hope Mr. Howarth writes a whole lot more along this time line.

Richmond,Va. WWII. Prosperity,Vice & Action

If you could sum up River City Blues in three words, what would they be?

WWII American Crime Fighter

What other book might you compare River City Blues to and why?

This book is impressive on many levels. Mystery. Action. A time machine into American life in prosperous Richmond, Virginia of late World War II. The graft, the hustle and bustle. Black market. And the characters, who seem real, ... affected by their experiences of the war. There seems to be extensive research, the effort seems to breathe reality from beginning to exciting finish. There are elements from Herman Wouk's works. Classics with fleshed out people, events...the same with River City Blues! In an early stage, and setting but that comes to mind. Much shorter work though lol. Not a bad thing! Sorry Herman!☺

Have you listened to any of Ward Paxton’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I'm surprised at how good he is and my NOT running across him before now! Exceptional range of characters' voices for conversations. Very listenable for narrative, a great sense of drama, danger, stress, action...without over doing it.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I came away with a sense of being involved with the characters and setting of the book. Being well entertained.

Any additional comments?

I enjoy works of Historical fiction. The era portrayed - WWII taking place in America, in this case. Well developed with a plausible mystery as motivation for the actions.

This was an interesting work! Well researched and well written. This held my attention.

BE AWARE: BRIEF appearance of bad language. Infrequently, but the phrase "curse like a sailor" came to mind! For me, those issues didn't take away from the action of the story considering.

This review copy audiobook was provided by the author, narrator or publisher at no cost. Which I can only assume was voluntary on their part. I am happy to give my honest review of it. I think I'm suppose to mention how reviewing this was voluntary on my part too.

Not an audio I enjoyed

Any additional comments?

I had a hard time getting into this audio it isn’t the plot or story. I just feel I most likely would have enjoyed it more if I had read it. There are a lot of twists and turns, the author gives you suspense and action. It is a believable story with some very good characters.

For me the narration isn’t smooth, there are places I think he should have paused and others where he should not have. Mr. Paxton has a very nice voice but all of his character voices seem really old when I thought they should have been a little younger. Don’t get me wrong he does a very nice older one. I hear no repeating of words, it is a very clear audio, there are no background noises. I really think the reason I could not get into it was it wasn’t smooth moving from plot to character. It is really hard for me to explain. I just found my mind wondering thinking about other things. The narrator just could not pull me in which took away from the story. For me it just all kind of ran together and I found myself going back re-listening to what I had already listened to.

I really did not enjoy this audio but do plan on reading the book at some point. I feel I will enjoy it more. At that point I will redo my review.