Kirkus Reviews QR Code
GO CLOSE AGAINST THE ENEMY by Takis Iakovou

GO CLOSE AGAINST THE ENEMY

by Takis Iakovou & Judy Iakovou

Pub Date: June 15th, 1998
ISBN: 0-312-18587-1
Publisher: St. Martin's

Nick and Julia Lambros, owners of a small restaurant in the college town of Delphi, Georgia, are dismayed by the actions of sanctimonious Walter Fry, married deacon of Mount Sinai Tabernacle Church. Fry is leading a loud vocal protest by church members as still-born Damien Folsom is being buried in the church’s cemetery. Damien’s father, Davon, is black. His mother is April, the white daughter of the church’s minister, Reverend Allen McNabb. After the funeral, a nasty scene ensues when a stressed-out April threatens Fry with a gun. She’s slapped by her father, and the gun is thrown into the shrubbery. The same night, Fry is found shot to death on his kitchen floor, killed by the same gun, and April is taken into custody. Aware of her success in solving a previous crime (So Dear to Wicked Men, 1996), April appeals to Julia for help. After a reluctant go-ahead from Louis Humphries, April’s lawyer, Julia begins to search Fry’s background, turning up plenty that’s unsavory—a succession of young black mistresses; partnership in a raunchy dance hall, shifty money dealings, and more. A pair of local brutes lurk constantly in the background, eventually sending Davon to the hospital with life- threatening injuries. In the end, it’s a tiny piece of evidence and a complex theory that will free April and nail a killer. A rambling, sporadically suspenseful plot enlivened by some well-drawn characters and by the authors— heartfelt take on lingering racial injustice.