Smoke-Filled Rooms

Smoke-Filled Rooms is a historical mystery novel written by Kristine Kathryn Rusch under the pen name Kris Nelscott. The first entry in the Smokey Dalton, it follows Dalton, an African-American private investigator in the late 1960s who has escaped to Chicago from Memphis, Tennessee with Jimmy, a 10 year-old boy who had witnessed the assassination of Dalton's childhood friend Martin Luther King Jr.

Dick Adler of the Chicago Tribune called the novel "mystery fiction at its highest, most-gripping level", opining that Rusch "has the heart, courage and brains for the job".^[1] Richard Lipez of The Washington Post it "something of a tease" and "hair-raising", writing that while the "denouement" involving Smokey Dalton's years in the Korean War is "clunky", the novel is "redeemed by its well-researched historical background."^[2] Publishers Weekly stated: "Fans of modern PI novels may enjoy this one, but it makes a very poor substitute for authentic black crime writing from that turbulent era, much of which is available in reprint."^[3]