Julie 's Reviews > Nothing More Dangerous

Nothing More Dangerous by Allen Eskens is a 2019 Mulholland publication.

An impressive piece of literary crime fiction!

Set in the rural town of Jessup, Missouri during the 1970s, this novel is a compelling mystery, coupled with a poignant coming of age story, carrying a timely message.

Boady, a fifteen-year-old living with his widowed mother, experiences an awakening after a Black woman named Lida Poe, disappears after allegedly embezzling a tidy sum of money from the local manufacturing plant where she worked as a bookkeeper.

As a result of this development, The Elgins', an African American family, moves into the house across the road from Boady. Mr. Elgin will be the new manager at the plant, and is wife becomes a wonderful influence on Boady's reclusive mother. Although they get off to a bumpy start, he and Thomas Elgin, a boy close to his age, strike up a close friendship.

Meanwhile Boady is under pressure to stab his new friend in the back, forcing him to walk a dangerous tightrope, until a gruesome discovery puts him in a life or death situation that will not only reveal the racist underbelly of his community, it will shape Boady into the man he will eventually become.

While the story has its moments of intense suspense, it is Boady’s effectual journey that sets this book apart, making it far more than your average novel of mystery and suspense.

The book addresses the obvious incidents of hardcore, violent racism, but it also points a searing finger at the more subtle forms of racism and the tone -deaf damage and pain casually inflicted without a second thought.

I loved learning Boady’s backstory, watching how his friendship with Thomas develops, and the very clever plotting in this book. I have grown to really appreciate Eskens’ work and look forward to hearing more from him in the future.

4.5 stars