Thrilling, well-paced, and surprisingly dark, Naked Came the Detective is Glendall C. Jackson III’s beautifully written debut novel with a noir soul. A highly intelligent escort is the fascinating detective in this story in which sex, love, despair, and power mix together in a dangerous and shady Washington D.C.
Written as the memoir of the heroine’s last weeks as an escort as it is received in his office mail by Chris – a journalist and ex-client who, like many, had fallen in love with her. She had completely gone off the radar after landing him the scoop of his life the previous year, but she had sent him this one incredible, page-turning account of the investigation.
In between a personal journal and detective notes, Naked Came the Detective has a three-fold purpose – it is the vision of a true insider in the darkest, most intimate places in D.C.’s high-end society, it’s a realistic, stereotype-shattering trip into the other side of sex-work, and ultimately it is also a journey in the mind of a woman whose dignity, grace, and charm makes her a truly memorable modern heroine.
As she sees her next appointment, nicknamed “Aaron” to avoid disclosing real names, she cannot think about anything else but another client, “Ben.” It was just a few hours after their last encounter that Ben had been brutally murdered not far from where he worked, and she immediately suspected it was more than a mere robbery gone bad, as the police seemed to think. Something tells her this is a crime of passion – Ben was a boastful, unpleasant businessman who had many secrets, which along with his death’s inexplicable details add up to quite a riddle.
With her privileged access to many talented and important people in the city, and her instinct for detective work, our unnamed heroine starts gathering vital information about Ben, be it by gently tweezing it out during pillow talks or by stealing a client’s phone in the middle of the night. It becomes clear that Ben was involved in shady financial operations, and with more than one influential personality in D.C. stuck in his web, the collapse of his lies is bound to have a terrible result.
Beautiful, smart, and resourceful, Jackson’s detective is the perfect character to introduce the reader to a world that is often misunderstood. With the aid of Chris’s notes to explain some sex work lingo, the universe of escorting is shown with all its contradictions – the intimacy, secrecy, danger, allure, emotion, and transactional nature – without glamorizing it, or condemning it. The sex worker here is not a stereotypical victim of her circumstances, but a woman in full control of her life who actually solves a crime; nor is she the “whore with a heart of gold” who is too perfect to be believed. Jackson embraces her as a full-rounded character and person, creating a palpable air of mystery through each new setting, while unveiling a truly fascinating heroine.
Captivating and well-researched, Naked Came the Detective is a short and intense novel that will delight fans of the grittier edge of detective fiction, offering up a suspenseful, yet moving novel that is equally effective as a searing character portrait and chilling mystery.
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