BURNING WITH A BLUE FLAME

Derring-do and skullduggery abound in Dureaux-Russell’s historical novel of the Jazz Age.

The year is 1925 and the setting is Daytona Beach. Elmer (Elm) Darrell was an aviator in the Great War—an ace, in fact. Humboldt (Bolt) Bratka, who did not serve, is making a name for himself in auto racing. Raw and taciturn Elm was a farm kid; darkly handsome (Gary Cooper, meet Rudolph Valentino) Bolt comes from faded aristocracy. They meet at an exhibition pitting plane against race car and are immediately, almost electrically, attracted to each another. The narrative then introduces Lady Veronica (Roni) Van De Vord (the aristocratic name says it all). She is also a race car driver, and a model as well—she’s a vixen and a spitfire who knows Elm and Bolt probably better than they know themselves. These three and their coterie are creatures of the Roaring ’20s, disillusioned and out for a good time. They carouse almost past human endurance, and to top it off, Bolt intends to set a new world speed record on the famous sands of Daytona Beach while Elm aims to set an altitude record. Of course, it’s the Prohibition era, so throw in rum-running and the mob. This is Dureaux-Russell’s debut novel and readers may hope for sequels (Elm and Bolt and Roni in Hollywood?). The author endeavors to make the story a believable period piece, including details of the planes and cars involved, and of the speakeasy scene, with its passwords, cross-dressing emcees, and gin drinkers gyrating to the Black Bottom. Some anachronistic expressions slip in (does the wisecracking formulation of “And this concerns me, why?” really go back 100 years?), but he makes good use of period songs that reflect the ongoing action. Roni pithily sums up the ethos: “The war is over and it’s damn time to have some fun!” It’s the philosophy of the moochers who show up at Gatsby’s wild parties, hangovers be damned.

An impressive evocation of a time and place.