Darkness, Sing Me a Song

Holland Taylor returns in the fourth book David Housewright’s Edgar Award-winning series with a case of murder resulting from tragic, twisted drama in an extremely wealthy family in Darkness, Sing Me a Song. Holland Taylor is a PI who does simple background checks and other mostly unchallenging cases. Still wounded by the long-ago death of his wife and daughter, and newly mourning a recently failed relationship, Taylor doesn’t have much interest in more challenging work. But almost by accident, he finds himself in the middle of the crime of the century. Eleanor Barrington, the doyenne of a socially prominent family of great wealth, has been arrested for the murder of Emily Denys, her son’s fiancée. Barrington made no secret of her disdain for the victim, convinced that she was trying to take advantage of her son and her family. Taylor had been brought in to do a full background check on Emily, only to discover that both her name and her background were fabricated. Before he could learn more, she was murdered-shot in the head outside her apartment. Barrington had been overheard threatening to kill her son’s fiancé and an eyewitness claims to have seen her kill Emily. But that’s not the worst of it. Barrington’s own son has even worse accusations to make against her. Caught in the dark tangle of a twisted family and haunted by his own past, Taylor finds that the truth is both elusive and dangerous. Critical Acclaim for Darkness, Sing Me a Song: 'It can be tricky when a writer revisits a character after such a long time, but Housewright jumps right back into Taylor’s world as though no time has passed; even his writing style feels the same as it did, which is no mean feat when you think of how much a writer’s style can evolve over the course of two decades. Fans of the first three Taylor novels who have been longing for a fourth will be in seventh heaven, and this is also a perfect occasion for new readers to make the acquaintance of a smart, tough PI in the grand hard-boiled tradition' -Booklist 'In Edgar-winner Housewright’s welcome fourth outing for St. Paul, Minn. PI Holland Taylor...the knots are many and messy, and Holland shows he has the wit and character to untangle them' -Publishers Weekly 'Housewright resurrects an appealingly troubled, self-tormenting hero who assures himself, ’you’re the most pathetic human being alive,’ even as he’s dodging bullets, decking assailants, making nice to his neighbor’s 11-year-old daughter, and coming up with a solution as dark as the mystery.' -Kirkus Review 'Holland Taylor is back and better than ever. He’s a bit more gritty and the writing is a bit tighter and the plot thicker...As we rush to the ending there’s a very nice amount of dark twist and turns that make this a novel that will stay with you for days after you finish it.' -Sons of Spade