Between the Devil and the Deep South Blues

Crime writer Ace Atkins has taken over from the late Robert B.Parker, with the approval of Parker's estate, of continuing the Spenser private eye novels. He does it well, keeping the feel of the original whilst adding his own Chandleresque take - the best of two worlds. The hero, in between drinking whisky, beer and coffee and solving cases, invariably has a jazz record playing ('cept when he's in bed with Susan). Great stuff.

However, it's Atkins first novel - Crossroads Blues - I'm writing about here. A powerful crime novel, I'd picked it up in a charity shop some years ago, based around the search for some rare Robert Johnson blues records. Robert Johnson , King of the Delta Blues, we all know did, by legend, sell his soul to the Devil at a crossroads in Mississippi in return for his prodigious talent.

Maybe he did, maybe he didn't but, when I first read Crossroads Blues, I vowed I was going to search for a Robert Johnson CD if such a one existed.

The next day I was in a market in Sunderland. They had a record stall and, you're never gonna believe this but, the very first record I saw was Robert Johnson: Crossroad Blues. 

I began to wonder, was this just coincidence? Or did the Devil have a hand in moving it to the front of the pile...?

Beelzebub.