Red Fog

by Kenneth King

Jimmy Dependra, a writer living on Manhattan's Lower East Side, is obsessed with the mysteries of sex and death as he researches how the city's underground history was transformed by the telegraph and transatlantic cable, the latter invented by Cyrus Field in Gramercy Park. He is introduced to Berenice Chawters, a feisty ninety-three year old former courtesan who has lived there for over sixty years and inherited a large portion of the Atlantic Cable Company fortune, and she shares with him her unusual lifetime's experiences. Then, cruising Stuyvesant Park late one night, he encounters a dark stranger who turns out to be Dr. Neelem Blegg, a professor of criminology and forensics at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, who he discovers is also knowledgeable about Cesare Lombroso, the famous 19th century Italian psychiatrist and pioneering criminologist who was a scientific precursor of Freud. They realize Lombroso has a surprising contemporary relevance and this catalyzes their relationship. Jimmy moves through a labyrinth of unusual intrigues that refocuses the case of a murdered hermaphrodite hooker and her killer that reveals parallels between writing and detection, criminology and crypt-ology. Red Fog is a darkly illuminating roman ? clef that probes the city's taboo underside as it explores intertwining reflections connecting the living and dead. It culminates on September 11, 2001, after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center."The book explores the seamy underbelly of society, which can certainly capture the imagination... unique, well-crafted characters... A weighty meditation on the past, sexuality, and criminality..." Kirkus Reviews

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1517191246
• ISBN13: 9781517191245
• Release Date: September 2015
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 294 Pages
• Weight: 1.12 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.7" x 6.0"