GUEST REVIEW: Requiem for Ashes by David Crossman

Dear Mr. Crossman:

You had me at "Your head's on fire."

The first time I read Requiem for Ashes was under its original 1994 title, Murder in a Minor Key. I was working at the now-closed and much mourned Scotland Yard Books in Winnetka, Illinois, where I'd earned a reputation for liking books with quirky characters, or maybe it was for characters with quirky books. Either way, Albert, the most unlikely sleuth to grace any detective novel, stumbled and chain-smoked his way into my heart and...