Harbor House Books

Our Titles

Atlanta Blues

Fiction/South/Suspense
ISBN 1-891799-02-9
13-Digit ISBN 978-1-891799-02-0
Hardcover - $24.95
Publication Date: September 2004

Mystery novel explores the dark depths of human nature

Atlanta Blues (Harbor House, $24.95), Robert Lamb’s intricate foray into the underworld of Atlanta, challenges mystery fans to look beyond a city’s surface and into mankind’s darkest depths.

Ben Blake knows missing-persons simply do not make headlines. But when Connie Phillip’s distraught mother begs him to help search for her daughter, the overworked, underpaid newspaper reporter reluctantly caves in.

While on the tracks of the seemingly innocent girl, Ben and his police officer buddies find themselves weaving through the streets of Atlanta, beyond the side of the city tourists see in daylight, into the sexual deviance and murder that lies behind closed doors.

With disarmingly clear prose, the veteran author attacks the most complex of questions, diving into such harrowing topics as eroticism, perversity, murder and betrayal with the authority only thorough research and real-life experience as a newspaper reporter can muster.

Offering a compassionate and humane portrayal of life as an Atlanta police officer in the 1980s, Lamb not only investigates the trials cops face, but also delves into their souls as his characters come face to face with the horror of the criminal mind.

Spanning the wide breadth of criminals to cops, Lamb tackles readers’ most sacred safe havens as police officers illegally obtain evidence and young adults turn up dead.

From the jaded and heartbroken Johnny Lee — an Atlanta cop with shattered ideals — to the cunning and devious Eve Garland — owner of one of the hottest and most successful lesbian bars in the city — the cast of characters waltzes through the scenes in a colorful and mesmerizing disarray, as Ben meets all kinds in his effort to uncover the truth.

Lamb’s artful narrative and gritty dialogue portray the real Atlanta with contemporary details complementing the traditional cat-and-mouse detective novel. Following in the footsteps of Dashiel Hammitt and Joseph Wambaugh, the author crafts a sensitive and haunting tale about innocence exploited and hope regained.

Advance praise for Atlanta Blues

“In Atlanta Blues, Robert Lamb writes with the authority and sensitivity of (Joseph) Wambaugh at his best. This haunting novel will keep you awake — reading it the first night, thinking about it afterward.”
— Richard Layman, author and publisher

“Crackling with narrative energy and hard-boiled dialogue, Bob Lamb’s new novel is a cat-and-mouse thriller that blows Elmore Leonard out of the water and gives Joseph Wambaugh a tight run for the money.”
— Wade Tabor, Miller’s Rules and The Long-Range Plan

“I was Robert Lamb’s editor when he covered Atlanta’s soft underbelly of sin for The Atlanta Constitution in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and I know he writes the truth. The setting could be any big city in America. Bob has done a masterful job of depicting how policing urban America’s mean streets affect the lives of the men in blue and the people they care for.”
— David Osier, former Atlanta Journal-Constitution editor, now with CNN

“No one knows 'Hotlanta’s' seamy underbelly better than ex-Atlanta newspaperman Robert Lamb. Atlanta Blues is almost Chandleresque in the way it explores the dark soul and swift undercurrents of this glittering hub of the New South.”
— Mark A. Bradley, former CIA officer

“Atlanta Blues is a walk on the wild side of urban America, a side of the city that people like reporters, policemen, coroners and emergency medical workers see close up every day. It is a story about the concrete jungle — before the story gets served up, tame and sanitized, in your morning newspaper or on the evening news.”
— Vasilisa C. Hamilton, Papa Didn’t Preach: Words of Wisdom for Daddy’s Girls

“I am one of the fortunate few who read Atlanta Blues in its first drafts. It was then, and is now, a page-turner! Robert Lamb follows his first novel, Striking Out, with another highly readable story that grabs the reader’s attention and desire to know the whole story. As a former investigative newspaper reporter and editor, I appreciate the characterizations of reporter Ben Blake and the policemen he encounters. Lamb has a special ability to give his characters life beyond the written page and move them quickly into our imaginations. Atlanta Blues is a must read!”
— Karen Petit, writer, domestic violence victims’ advocate

“Atlanta Blues is a great read. I read it in a single sitting, and its compelling and suspenseful story transported me back 25 years to when I was a police reporter in Atlanta. For a marvelous few hours of reading, I was right back there, riding with long-ago friends, sharing their intensity and reliving the human drama a cop and cop reporters face every day. Bob got it just right, and it all comes alive in Atlanta Blues. Bravo! And thanks, Bob, from all of us who have been there.”
— Barry King, former police reporter, The Atlanta Constitution

"Atlanta Blues captures the day-in and day-out realities of police work. This story conveys the pressures and demands that police officers face in the line of public service, and the very ugly side of life and death that few people can imagine. As a detective on a metropolitan police force for nearly 25 years, I have worked murders, rapes, robberies and kidnappings. Atlanta Blues gets at the very heart of what we do in a world that the public seldom sees — and that many don't want to see."
— Walt Bales, police investigator, former Officer of the Year, Columbia, S.C.