A Portrait in the Tenderloin (Ithuriel's Spear Mystery) - Softcover

"A Portrait in the Tenderloin, a new mystery from the small press publisher Ithuriel s Spear, is writer John Goins first novel. Set in the underbelly of late 2003 San Francisco, Goines story puts Bill Haywood, an African-American reporter for a community paper in the city s tough Tenderloin neighborhood, on a quest to solve the murder of his schizophrenic brother. Said sibling, a street character with substance abuse problems, was working on a wall mural when he was offed for unknown reasons. Goins spent time writing for a community paper much like the one his hero toils for, and the writer clearly knows his turf well." --Ben Terrall, Murder, Class and Late-Capitalism in the Tenderloin, COUNTERPUNCH, September 2013"

Fiction. "A good mystery is a dialogue with a reader, a city, a certain time in history, an exploration of a people's attitude towards humanity, socialmores, the downtrodden, the vulnerable. Set in San Francisco, Goins' debut novel exhibits author's control, talent and insight in the right mix. His canvas, concerns, his prose, lyrical attimes, penetrating, unsettling often, will make it hard for the reader to put the book down."—Moazzam Sheikh