Hidden in Plain View
By (Author) Blair S. Walker
2
Amazon Publishing
AmazonEncore
26th July 2011
United States
General
Fiction
FIC
Paperback
268
In the second installment of Blair S. Walker's Darryl Billups series, the intrepid reporter has left his blue-collar Baltimore roots for a new gig in New York. But life in the big city isn't all it's cracked up to be. Luckily for Darryl, the Baltimore Herald is only too happy to welcome its star reporter back home, as are Darryl's girlfriend Yolanda and her young son Jamal. Darryl is promoted to editor, but before long is itching to return to his former crime beat. He gets his chance when the nude bodies of African-American professionals begin turning up around town, their faces ominously marked with Confederate-flag decals. At a loss for suspects, homicide detective Phillip Gardner calls on his old friend Darryl for help unraveling the case. Darryl eagerly reconnects with Baltimore's seedy underbelly and is soon hot on the trail of a killer who will transform his notions about gender, race, and the workings of the criminal mind. To break this story, Darryl must learn to look at the world in a totally different way-or become the killer's most high-profile victim yet!
Darryl Billups is a news reporter with wit enough to fashion his own escapeand solve a shocking hate crime in the process. David Simon, creator of The Wire IntriguingInsightfulAn engaging and satisfying novel. Washington Post Book World
The son of two Baltimore public school teachers, Blair S. Walker used to entertain himself in elementary school by writing short stories. The practice was frowned upon by instructors who wanted Walker to pay attention in class rather than secretly heed his muse. After serving in the Army as a Korean linguist, Walker attended the University of Maryland and worked as an intern reporter with the Baltimore Sun. Hired by the Orlando Sentinel after college, Walker was fired after six months by an editor who disparagingly noted that Walker's writing ability was marginal at best! A former financial writer with USA Today, Walker has been an editor with New York Newsday and the Washington Post, and a newsman with the Associated Press. The author of three novels featuring investigative reporter Darryl Billups, Walker holds a University of Maryland J.D. degree and currently lives in South Florida, where he's pursuing a lifelong dream of learning to fly helicopters.