Downtown Strut An Edna Ferber Mystery - Edna Ferber Mysteries Author:Ed Ifkovic Manhattan 1927. Edna Ferber prepares for ?the Ferber season on Broadway.? On December 27 Show Boat opens; the next night The Royal Family, her comedy of manners written with George Kaufman, debuts. But Edna misses both opening nights. She has something else on her mind?murder. — Edna has been mentoring some talented, young black writers and actor... more »s who are part of the burgeoning Harlem Renaissance, including Waters Turpin. her housekeeper Rebecca?s son. Intrigued by the boyishly handsome Roddy Parsons, a charismatic man most recently in the ?Negro chorus" of Show Boat, she heads to Harlem to take him to lunch, only to discover he?s been stabbed to death in his bed. Who killed this young man, a lad with so much promise?
Edna finds herself caught up in the heady milieu of the Roaring Twenties? Harlem Renaissance?the jazz clubs, the faddish dances, the frenzy?and the lively pulse of downtown Broadway that entices these talented young ?Negroes.? But at what a price? Who murdered Roddy? There are the writers who meet at Edna?s apartment, among them Bella Davenport, a beautiful vamp; Ellie Payne, a jazz singer; Freddy Holder, a rabble-rouser; and Lawson Hicks, Bella's handsome boyfriend. There is also Jed Harris, the young producer of The Royal Family, a darling of the Broadway set?but a notoriously cruel man. With Waters Turpin and his mother Rebecca, aided as well by poet Langston Hughes, Edna sets out to track down the murderer. « less