Background
Skinner, Robert Earle was born on June 25, 1948 in Alexandria, Virginia, United States. Son of Earl Woodrow and Pearle Labar (Capper) Skinner.
(During Prohibition, the Mississippi flowed with contraban...)
During Prohibition, the Mississippi flowed with contraband. Rumrunners could make fortunes in New Orleans. Some got away with murder. Wesley Farrell, half-caste son of an Irish policeman, is no stranger to violence and death, but he’s deeply affected when a bright young Federal agent is gunned down right in front of him. A few years later, a new act opens and Farrell, conscious of his debt to the dead man who had saved his life just before he died, elects to play a role. His investigation not only opens up some well kept secrets, it carries his own role with his father in new directions.... Atmospheric, faithful to its period, Robert Skinner’s fourth Wesley Farrell novel is not just a suspenseful whodunit, but an exploration of family and of loss. Originally published in 2000, Blood to Drink is the fourth Wesley Farrell mystery following Poisoned Pen Press’ publication of Daddy’s Gone A-Hunting.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1890208671/?tag=2022091-20
(Chance Tartaglia, a cop with a nasty reputation for embez...)
Chance Tartaglia, a cop with a nasty reputation for embezzling, pimping and drug-dealing, has been found shot to death. To nightclub owner Wesley Farrell--who knows all about secrets--he was just another low-life who didn't pay his tab. Until Farrell is hired to find the killer, and forced to hitch a ride with his own private demons. Now, the lie Farrell's been living for so long is about to blow up in his face. Because there's more to Tartaglia's death than a bullet to the chest.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/157566254X/?tag=2022091-20
( Among the many writers who lent their talents to the cr...)
Among the many writers who lent their talents to the creation of hard-boiled detective fiction, few have approached it from a more original perspective than Chester Himes. A former criminal himself, Himes brought to the writing of detective fiction the perspective of the black man. Himes made his debut with the brilliant For Love of Imabelle, for which he was awarded the coveted Grand Prix de la Littérature Policière. Two Guns from Harlem probes Himes’s early life and career for the roots of this series and for its heroes, Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones. Skinner discusses how Himes’s experience as a black man, combined with his unique outlook on sociology, politics, violence, sex, and race relations, resulted not only in an unusual portrait of black America but also opened the way for the creation of the ethnic and female hard-boiled detectives who followed.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0879724544/?tag=2022091-20
(Autumn 1940—A black woman named Louise Blanc is found tor...)
Autumn 1940—A black woman named Louise Blanc is found tortured to death in her Gentilly home. Sergeant Israel Daggett can’t make anything of it until a Treasury agent arrives on the scene to let him know that Louise Blanc was the girlfriend of a bootlegger-turned-counterfeiter named Luis Martinez. On the other side of town, Wesley Farrell is looking for Martinez for his own reasons, but soon finds that his friend is up to his neck in hot water. He’s on the run from the boss of his gang—a blonde Spaniard named Santiago Compasso—after having run off with the key to the operation—the painstakingly constructed plates that produce twenty and fifty-dollar bills that are so good they’ve got the boys at Engraving and Printing jealous. Compasso’s worried, not just because his operation’s loused up, but also because he has someone of his own to answer to. Now Farrell’s in a contest with Compasso to find his friend and discover the reason for his doublecross before Compasso’s killer—a mysterious unseen psycho named Dixie Ray Chavez—can get there ahead of him.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1890208663/?tag=2022091-20
( During Prohibition, the Mississippi flowed with contrab...)
During Prohibition, the Mississippi flowed with contraband. Rumrunners could make fortunes in New Orleans. Some got away with murder. Wesley Farrell, half-caste son of an Irish policeman, is no stranger to violence and death, but he's deeply affected when a bright young Federal agent is gunned down right in front of him. A few years later, a new act opens and Farrell, conscious of his debt to the dead man who had saved his life just before he died, elects to play a role. His investigation not only opens up some well kept secrets, it carries his own role with his father in new directions.... Atmospheric, faithful to its period, Robert Skinnet's fourth Wesley Farrell novel after Skin Deep Blood Red, Cat-Eyed Trouble, and Daddy's Gone a-Hunting is not just a suspenseful whodunit, but an exploration of family and of loss.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1890208337/?tag=2022091-20
( A contemporary of Richard Wright, James Baldwin, and Ra...)
A contemporary of Richard Wright, James Baldwin, and Ralph Ellison, Chester Himes wrote with perhaps more angry fire than his celebrated colleagues about black protagonists doomed by white racisim and self-hate. Among his writings is a series of hard-boiled detective novels featuring black detectives and a host of Harlem hustlers. The acclaimed Harlem series and much of his later work were written in France where Himes lived as an American expatriate from 1953 until his death in 1984. Exhaustively researched and well constructed, this comprehensive bibliography clears up mysteries and dispels misconceptions about the extent of Himes's work and its critical reception. The primary bibliography identifies all United States, French, and British first and second editions of Himes's novels, the first appearances in periodicals of his short stories, his collected fiction, and his magazine and book-length nonfiction pieces. It includes manuscript materials and a filmography of adaptations of his novels. The annotated secondary bibliography provides a key to the biographical and critical work produced about Himes in the United States, Britain, and France since the late 1940s. Chronologically organized, it is indexed by author and by titles of the relevant Himes's works. The volume's introduction outlines Himes's life and career, discusses gaps in his writing history, and attempts to provide a more realistic picture of his critical reception in the United States based on an analysis of the secondary bibliography rather than on previous views influenced by Himes's own negative perceptions. A chronology of Himes's career is also included, and the volume's preface explains the organization of the bibliography and how to use it. This work will be of special value to university libraries offering programs in popular culture, American literature, and African American studies as well as to individual scholars and researchers in these fields and scholars and collectors interested particularly in Himes and his works.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0313283966/?tag=2022091-20
Skinner, Robert Earle was born on June 25, 1948 in Alexandria, Virginia, United States. Son of Earl Woodrow and Pearle Labar (Capper) Skinner.
Bachelor in History, Old Dominion University, 1970. Master of Library Science, Indiana University, 1977. Postgraduate student, University New Orleans, 1993.
Search analyst Strughold Aeromed. Library., Brooks Air Force Base, Texas, 1977-1979. From reference library to head medical education library Louisiana State University Medical Center, New Orleans, 1979-1985.
Special consultant Robert L. Siegel & Associates, 1985-1987. University library Xavier University, since 1987. Managing editor Xavier Review Press, since 1989.
Visiting lecturer in American studies United States Air Force Academy, 2002. Speaker Symposium on African-American Detective Fiction, Bucknell University, 2005.
(Now in Paper! Aimed at both the new student and the seaso...)
(Protecting a secret that could destroy him, 1936 New Orle...)
( A contemporary of Richard Wright, James Baldwin, and Ra...)
( Among the many writers who lent their talents to the cr...)
(Chance Tartaglia, a cop with a nasty reputation for embez...)
(Autumn 1940—A black woman named Louise Blanc is found tor...)
(During Prohibition, the Mississippi flowed with contraban...)
( During Prohibition, the Mississippi flowed with contrab...)
(1)
With United States Coast Guard, 1970-1974. Member American Library Association, Mystery Writers American.
Married Linda Sue Long, June 12, 1970 (divorced 1976). Children: Christopher William, Kelly Sue. Married Patricia Ann Friedmann, March 17, 1979 (divorced 1996).
Children: Esme F., Werner H. Married Bettye Jean Harrison, June 20, 2001.