[An] ingeniously plotted novel … Norman knows how to weave an enticing and satisfying mystery, one tantalizing thread at a time. – New York Times Book Review A witty, engrossing homage to noir, from National Book Award finalist Howard Norman

Jacob Rigolet, soon-to-be former assistant to a wealthy art collector, looks up from his seat at an auction–his mother, former head librarian at the Halifax Free Library, is walking almost casually up the aisle. Before a stunned audience, she flings an open jar of ink at master photographer Robert Capa’s Death on a Leipzig Balcony. Jacob’s police detective fiancee is assigned to the ensuing interrogation.

My Darling Detective delivers a fond nod to classic noir, as Jacob’s understanding of the man he has always assumed to be his father unravels against the darker truth of Robert Emil, a police officer suspected of murdering two Jewish residents during an upswing of anti-Semitism in 1945. The denouement, involving a dire shootout and an emergency delivery–it’s the second Rigolet to be born in the Halifax library in a three decades–is Howard Norman at his uncannily moving best.

Norman works with an offhand ease and grace … Whimsy is balanced by moments of powerfully evoked realism. – Washington Post

An unconventional, lively literary mystery. – Kirkus Reviews