Frank Clemons

The Dick of the Day

Created by Thomas H. Cook
(1947 –)

 

You want it darker?

More a long novel spat out in parts than a series, these three books by Thomas H. Cook featuring FRANK CLEMONS form one of the truly classic P.I. hat tricks of all time.

Too bad, then, that within a few years, these dark, beautiful books were almost completely forgotten.

No, really. With this trilogy, Cook tapped into something very special, slipped the surly bonds of a generally earth-bound genre and touched the face of the gods of the genre, at least for a little while.

That’s how much I was moved by them.

The books trace the journey of grief-stricken, guilt-plagued Frank’s journey from jaded Atlanta homicide cop to New York City private eye. With raw, aching prose, author Cook gave us a world of such heart-breaking sorrow and profound loneliness that Frank’s desperate attempt not to succumb to it becomes positively heroic.

When we first meet Frank in 1988’s Edgar-nominated Sacrificial Ground, he’s an Atlanta cop working homicide, looking for the killer of a teenage girl dumped in a vacant lot, tossed out like so much trash. He’s a long, tall plank of a man, the son of a preacher man, with a bloodline running straight back to the hills. Haunted by the suicide of his teenage daughter, bitter and burned out, Frank has become a restless night crawler, doggedly working the case while hitting the bottle, in danger of letting his marriage, and his career, slip away. But what could have been the usual noirish wallow in self-pity is anything but. Emotionally bruising, yes, but oddly, you end up cheering for Frank, even as you — and probably him — realize it may already be too late.

In Flesh and Blood (1989), seeking some form of salvation (or maybe just escape), Frank follows a woman he thinks he loves to New York, but that soon slips away too. Heartbroken and unemployed, he falls back on the one thing in his life he (maybe) can count on: his skills as a detective. He sets up shop as as private eye, working out of a dank, damp basement office on 49th Street, looking for cases in which he can bury himself, in a town where his Southern accent marks him as an outsider immediately.

But in the aptly titled Night Secrets from 1990, Frank’s long, sleepless evenings continue.  He wanders the dark streets of the Big Apple (don’t mind the maggots): a bleak world of grocery stores that never close, after-hour bars, and the crude, cobbled-together shelters of the homeless.

The eternal loner, Frank somehow finally finds a friend, and at least a sometime partner. Farouk is a mysterious, cryptic man who earns his living “lending assistance in difficult matters,” and selling information to those who are buying. He ends up providing info and doing the “paperwork” that Frank would rather avoid, which suits Frank just fine — he’d much rather do the legwork, hitting the streets, questioning countless people, trusting his instincts and the meticulously-kept notebooks in which he’s constantly scribbling, scribbling, scribbling… in search of that sudden flash of inspiration that will crack the case.

Frank is an oddly fascinating character, haunted and obsessed, and, thanks to Cook’s moody, atmospheric and evocative prose, these three books are one of the most stirring, emotional private eye series I’ve ever come across, ultimately disturbing and compelling.

Heavily recommended.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Born in Fort Payne, Alabama in 1947, Thomas H. Cook is the author of several critically hailed mysteries, including Blood Innocents, Tabernacle and The Chatham School Affair, which  won the Edgar for Best Novel from the Mystery Writers of America, and has been nominated for numerous other awards. A subsequent novel, about David Corman, a New York photographer who makes like a private eye, is pretty good stuff, too.

UNDER OATH

  • “The writing and characterizations are flawless, particularly as Cook unobtrusively but surely commands empathy for Frank Clemons, a good cop and a real human being.”
    — Publishers Weekly on Sacrificial Ground
  • ” “Thomas H. Cook triumphs at teaching an old dog some new tricks.”
    — The New York Times on Flesh and Blood
  • “Clemons is a richly-drawn, terribly depressing character. He cares for nobody and nothing. The city he lives in is equally textured and equally depressing — all shades of grey, inhabited by the isolated and alienated… Yet Clemons fights hard to retain and fan the tiny spark of humanity that resides deep inside him, just as he fights to learn more about the young victim’s life and death. By book’s end, he solves the murder and saves himself, at least temporarily. Having read the Clemons trilogy in reverse order, I know that things will get much worse before they truly get better, but I also know that they will get better in a most unanticipated way. This is one series that is absolutely essential to read — if you plan to read it — in its entirety, and in order. This is one series that is absolutely essential to read — if you plan to read it — in its entirety, and in order.”
    — Sue Feder (The Magical Mystery Tour)

THE CASTING COUCH

  • When I first read the trilogy, I thought Lance Henrickson, or whatever his name is, from TV’s Millenium, would be fantastic as Frank. I still do. Coincidentally, his character on that show was also called Frank. Hmmm…..

NOVELS

FURTHER INVESTIGATION

THE DICK OF THE DAY

  • September 20, 2026
    THE BOTTOM LINE: You want it darker? A powerful, slow-burn noirish trilogy, tracing one grief-stricken, guilt-plagued man’s bleak journey from Atlanta homicide dick to New York City private eye, still haunted by his past even as he strives to make some sense out of his life. Not for the meek, but this is beautifully written, stamped in heart-breaking sorrow and profound loneliness. One of the most impressive hat tricks in the Shamus Game.
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.

 

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