Con Lehane is no stranger to unions or to mysteries. A former union organizer and labor journalist, he is the author of two mystery series (and now hopefully a third). His new novel, Red Scare Murders (Soho Crime, 2025), takes place in 1950's New York City as the burgeoning Red Scare had already led to the blacklisting of many Hollywood writers, cartoonists, and other entertainment professionals, including the novel's protagonist, Mick Mulligan. Mulligan has come East, leaving an ex-wife and daughter behind in California, after being fired by the Disney studios for his leftist sympathies. He has hung out a shingle, fairly unspectacularly, as a private investigator and is given a new case when a union representing taxi cab drivers wants him to try and clear the name of an African-American driver, union member and Communist who has two weeks to live before he goes to the electric chair for killing his former employer. The union is organizing drivers after bringing together warring local unions controlled by either Communists or the New York mafia. Fingers are pointed in many directions for the delay in getting Mulligan to find new evidence that will save the worker's life. Lehane is skillful at weaving all of the history of the period, along labor union politics and tactics, into this pleasure of a mystery with all of its twists and turns. Since the novel takes place in 1950, early in the Red Scare period, there are plenty of good sequels to be penned to keep Mulligan busy. Check it out!
- John Beck