Left for Dead

Mark Renzler #4

by Paul Engleman

In December 1972, P.I. Mark Renzler is contracted to find Harpo, a paranoid former Black Panther who was involved in a break-in at an FBI office, and he must navigate his way through the poliical left in order to find his man.

232 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1995

Reviews

[Judi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now this is interesting twist on a mystery novel. Engleman takes actual events from the early 70's and weaves a credible sleuth story - but when the story takes place, it is BEFORE the real events.

Mark Renzler is a 40ish year old detective who is asked to look for the brother of a friend of a friend. Harmony is a young black actress who prior to her acting career was involved in political events in Chicago. Her missing brother is a former Black Panther but more recently involved with a new radical group. He is using an alias to hide from the FBI for a crime that he committed a couple years earlier and now he is afraid for his life.

Unfortunately his books are out of print, I found my copy in the bargain section at Barnes and Noble.

[Rogue Reader · Rating 2 out of 5]

I should have enjoyed Engleman's Left for Dead but it made me uncomfortable. A small white guy, a NYC PI, takes on a case involving 1960s and 1970s Black activists and falls in love with his connection to the case. Blurbs mention the book's nod to blacksploitation and Left for Dead describes how a beautiful woman enters the business and makes good, taking advantage of her celebrity in the genre, presaging the spectacularly talented Queen Latifa in The Equalizer in 2021. What I did appreciate is the 1970s view of the city and urban New Jersey neighborhoods before gentrification.