The Long-Legged Fly Audiobook

In steamy New Orleans, black private detective Lew Griffin has taken on a seemingly hopeless missing-person case. The trail takes him through the underbelly of the French Quarter with its bar girls, pimps, and tourist attractions. As his search leads to one violent dead end and then another, Griffin is confronted with the prospect that his own life has come to resemble those of the people he is attempting to find.

Waking in a hospital after an alcoholic binge, Griffin finds another chance in a nurse who comes to love him, but again he reverts to his old life in the mean streets among the predators and their prey. When his son vanishes, Griffin searches back through the tangles and tatters of his life, knowing that he must solve his personal mysteries before he can venture after the whereabouts of others.

Download and start listening now!

"Lew Griffin is an African-American private investigator in New Orleans. In this book (the first in a five book series) we follow him through four inter-connected stories set roughly a decade apart each. In the beginning we see Griffin as something akin to a traditional private eye, complete with shabby office and requisite drinking problem. As the stories progress, things deviate from the traditional detective story. He still acts as a "finder" looking for missing people, but the focus of the book moves away from that pursuit. Sallis states in an interview included in the book that the Lew Griffin books do not have any plots themselves, but instead rely on voice and atmosphere to move them forward. This was confusing to me at first, because I am so used to reading crime fiction that is relentlessly plot driven. In this case, the narrative meanders along like the bayous and swamps that Sallis so evocatively describes. The atmosphere evoked by New Orleans and its history and music and the ennui of Griffin's voice and descriptions make for a melancholy but evocative story."

— Tim (4 out of 5 stars)