Ivory Coast: A Novel - Softcover

"What a great first novel! Charles Fleming has captured all the glitzy glamour of Las Vegas in the 1950s and brought it absolutely to life. The Ivory Coast is a terrific story from a talented storyteller." --Dominick Dunne "Impressive...Amid all the hard-boiled James Ellroy-inspired drama what emerges here is a surprisingly sensitive story about the historic daringness and personal sacrifices that made integration possible. Yet Fleming never loses sight of the neon-lit sleaze of Las Vegas, making this sure-bet thriller as satisfyingly sordid as it is socially responsible." --Los Angeles Times "Palpable...A kind of tenderness hovering behind the main players draws you in." --Houston Chronicle "A promising fiction debut." --Seattle Post-Intelligencer "This thoroughly engaging tale adroitly mixes an intriguing story with the history of the early days of the famed desert city." --The Poisoned Pen

It is 1955 in Las Vegas, and the Chicago mob man Mo Weiner is bankrolling ex-boxer Worthless Worthington Lee and the city's first all-black hotel-casino. The Ivory Coast is rising up from the dust, on the wrong side of town. And out of the shadows steps Deacon, a white horn player with a dark past and a genius for jazz. Mo mistakes him for a hitman. Worthless takes him for a friend. Anita, the mixed-race beauty he falls for, wants him for herself. And Haney, the corrupt and racist cop who runs this hot desert oasis of sin and sand, wants him rubbed out.