Keeper of the Flame

When Crang investigates the blackmailing of his client, who happens to be a hugely popular hip-hop artist, he stumbles on a porn operation and an unexpected case of murder.

Crang loves vodka, jazz, and his girlfriend Annie, and not necessarily in that order. He’s also the kind of smart-talking criminal lawyer who doesn’t mind chasing down unorthodox cases. That makes him just the guy to represent a famous hip-hop performer who’s on the wrong end of a blackmail scheme. It doesn’t strike Crang as a confounding case, but in no time, he finds himself confronting an organized gang that deals in porn, stock swindles, and murder. Things get so messy that Crang decides he’ll have to bend the laws and try a couple of break-and-enter jobs of his own. This turns out to get Crang and Maury, his retired burglar pal, in more hot water than they’ counted on. It’s a dilemma that would cause other lawyers to back away, but not Crang, the nervy attorney with the fast mouth.

Jack Batten, after a brief and unhappy career as a lawyer, has been a very happy Toronto freelance writer for many years. He has written thirty-five books. Batten reviewed jazz for theGlobe and Mail, wrote for the Toronto Star, reviewed movies on CBC Radio for twenty-five years. Not surprisingly, jazz, movies, and crime turn up frequently in Crang’s life.