Dark End of the Street — Ace Atkins

Former pro football player-turned-college professor Nick Travers came of age in a smoky New Orleans bar -- and he owes a monumental debt to its owners, Jo Jo and Loretta, who took him under their wings. Now Loretta wants Nick to locate her missing brother, the legendary singer Clyde James, who vanished in the sixties after his wife and a band member were murdered. The Dixie Mafia, a blonde bombshell grifter, and an Elvis-worshipping hitman are suddenly interested in the soul man as well, and Nick can't help wondering why. The answer lies somewhere in Memphis and the Mississippi Delta, where casino money, dirty politics, and old secrets bubble to the surface of the New South.