BLUE DOOR, THE

THE BLUE DOOR BY DAVID FULMER (HARCOURT, INC., $25)

If you love a mystery with some punch, Adanta audior David Fulmer delivers. As The Blue Door opens, we meet Eddie Cero, a welterweight boxer living on the seedler side of South Philly in the early sixties. On the way home from yet another mediocre performance in the ring, he encounters an older man being worked over by a couple of punks in a dark alley. He intervenes and saves Sal Giambroni from additional beating. What Eddie doesn't know is that his new acquaintance is about to get him out of the fight game and into the risky business of professional investigation.

The reader warms to Fulmer's two main characters from the first pages. Outside of the ring, Eddie is a music aficionado, and his passion for a certain sultry lady who sings the blues will involve him in a cold case leading to a broken heart as well as a few ribs.

The book's pace is one of its strongest assets. The chapters are well balanced, easy to read, and always leave you wishing you had time for just one more. Reader warning: This book does contain some language that would befit a seasoned boxer and a street-cop-turned-detective. Be prepared for coarse conversation and some graphic terminology.

-LYNNE LONG

Copyright Southern Progress Corporation Mar 2008
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved