A Black Sail (Coleridge Taylor Mystery #3)

MYSTERY:  Taylor is a police reporter who has been assigned fluff pieces ever since his former paper went belly up and he started his new job. While he is working a piece on the tall ships coming into New York for the Bicentennial celebration, a body is pulled up and on it is several bricks of low grade heroin. Taylor knows this is a story he can’t pass up. Unfortunately for him, there are several mobs who would like to bury the story and him with it. 

The story opens with the historical tall ships display, and raises a bit of nostalgia for anyone who lived during the U.S. Bicentennial. This is described in such detail one can feel the excitement building up to the event! That being said there are some passages that are too descriptive and take away from the story. The mobsters all had the same personalities and flaws - some differentiation would have added some flair. The novel moved along at a slow pace, which made it a more difficult read. Taylor’s tenaciousness is to be admired and makes him a likeable character.  This is the third book in the Taylor Coleridge series. Mr. Zahradnik writes a good, convoluted mystery that keeps his readers guessing until the very end.

Belinda Wilson