Kalamazoo author and 2011 Michigan Notable Book Award Winner D. E. Johnson has done an outstanding job weaving the early history of the Detroit auto industry into a suspenseful and atmospheric debut mystery. His book, “The Detroit Electric Scheme”, is set in a Detroit bustling with a nascent industry filled not only with unique automobiles such as the Detroit Electric Car, but unusual characters like the Dodge Brothers. Now Johnson is featured on a video on Jay Leno’s Garage.
When the son of a leading car auto magnate becomes the most obvious choice as a murderer the story takes off and crosses paths with blackmailers, drug dealers, tough cops and hard driving industrialists. Johnson has managed to put you in the center of a city about to be transformed by the automobile industry. A Detroit Electric Car is shown on the left in the photo with book collector Tom Plasman (left)at last fall’s Kerrytown BookFest.
Ray Walsh, owner of Curious Book Shop in East Lansing Michigan recently reviewed the book in the Lansing State Journal. The review is below.
“The Detroit Electric Scheme” by Kalamazoo-area author D.E. Johnson (Minotaur Books, $24.99) is an intriguing debut that showcases corruption in the exciting and growing automobile industry of Detroit in 1910.
The well-researched historical mystery features young Will Anderson, the son of the owner of one of the area’s leading electric car manufacturers.
The atmospheric, fast-paced tale opens with Anderson discovering a body in a huge hydraulic roof press. He identifies it as John Cooper, a one-time friend and the new fiancee of Elizabeth, Anderson’s old girlfriend.
Panic-stricken, Anderson flees the scene, barely avoiding the police, getting rid of his bloody clothes in a garbage can. He becomes the target of a blackmailer and is considered a prime suspect in the murder.
Anderson, who has an alcohol problem, gets help from unexpected sources, as he must try to rescue Elizabeth and find the true killer.
Johnson is at his best describing the booming metropolis of Detroit and many colorful characters, including Edsel Ford, the notorious Dodge Brothers and the city’s first crime boss.
Chris Walton in the Detroit Free Press also has a review on this fascinating book.
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