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Streetwise Washington, DC PI Dickie Cornish is hired to search for an undocumented man who vanished and soon finds himself caught between ICE, D.C. hustlers, Caribbean power brokers, and a deadly secret the Feds will do anything to protect.
It’s a long, hot summer in the nation’s capitol, and former unhoused addict-turned-private investigator Dickie Cornish is struggling to stay afloat. Work is scarce, money scarcer, and he’s already sweating a possible federal charge for allegedly assaulting ICE agents while providing security at a Latino teenager’s sweet sixteen party. Then Krissten walks into his life.
A winsome blonde and ICE employee, she offers Dickie $4,000 to find her missing boyfriend, Devon, an undocumented Bahamian with connections to D.C.’s dealers and hustlers. Dickie needs the money, but his longtime friend Croc warns him that Krissten’s bosses may have an ulterior—and possibly rogue—motive. When Dickie discovers that a young man resembling Devon was found dead in an unfinished swimming pool on a Caribbean island, the case takes a deadly turn. Following Devon’s trail through the D.C. underworld, Dickie encounters a transgender hustler named Terri, a ruthless old enemy known as Mattel or “Hot Wheels,” and a web of double-crosses that reaches all the way to federal law enforcement.
Now ICE wants Dickie to locate Devon’s mother, Hyacinth, while Dickie suspects the government is protecting something—or someone—far more dangerous. With the pressure on Washington mounting, he heads to the Bahamas to uncover the truth.
In Samaritan, Christopher Chambers sends his singular streetwise detective into an international mystery of murder, immigration, betrayal, corruption, and forbidden love.
Past Praise for Christopher Chambers' Dickie Cornish Series
“[A] no-holds-barred crime novel . . . an exciting climax . . . a 21st-century twist on traditional hardboiled noir.” —Publishers Weekly
“There’s no other PI like Dickie Cornish, and that’s a shame.” S.J. Rozen, author, the Lydia Chin / Bill Smith mystery series
“Like Hammett with San Francisco or Chandler with Los Angeles, Chambers’ mystery is as much about Washington as it is about the amoral monsters who prey on ordinary people and the lone gumshoe who takes them on.” —Washington City Paper
“Christopher Chambers brings to life not only an unforgettable character but also the gritty DC streets he inhabits.... A deeply realistic noir mystery with a social conscience.” —Hill Rag Magazine
“After reading this novel, it’s apparent that the modern heir to Chandler, Woolrich, and Cain is Christopher Chambers, enough said.” —The Strand Magazine
“For those who like their crime served up raw, gritty and grimy . . . Comparisons to George Pelecanos, S.A. Cosby and Andrew Vachss and TV shows like The Wire abound.” —Thrilling Detective
“You can’t get bleaker than Chambers, and that’s certainly a compliment.” —Crime Reads
“[The series] really nails Washington, DC in the current environment.” —George Pelacanos, writer and screenwriter (The Wire)
Christopher Chambers is an award-winning author of mystery, noir, pulp, and graphic novels and the creator of the Dickie Cornish detective series. His books include the Dickie Cornish detective novels Scavenger, Standalone, Streetwhys, and Samaritan, as well as the Angela Bivens mysteries A Prayer for Deliverance and Sympathy for the Devil, which was nominated for an NAACP Image Award. His short fiction has appeared in award-winning anthologies including The Obama Inheritance: 15 Stories of Conspiracy Noir and The Black Panther: Tales of Wakanda. Chambers is a member of the board of the Bouchercon World Mystery Writers Convention and a judge for the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Awards. He lives in Washington, D.C.