A Murder in Tacony

In the Tacony neighborhood of Philadelphia in 1950, the Korean War draft is beginning to select eligible males, and brothers Pat and Sean Mahoney are dealing with life, love, and growing up in a narrow-minded Irish Catholic household. Surrounded by a mischievous younger adopted brother, a sympathetic older sister, and strict yet supportive parents, Pat and Sean are doing their best to get by. The two boys' close age has made them more than just brothers; that loyalty, however, doesn't stop them from getting into a whole world of trouble. Pat naively involves himself in the local mafia in the course of his work as a courier delivering groceries. Meanwhile, Sean is being blackmailed for supposed homosexual behavior by one of a "terrible trio" of hoodlums-and in the fifties, when conformity is key, even an accusation is enough to stir up homophobic bigotry and violence. But it's the murder Pat witnesses at Dan's Diner that really rocks the teens' world. In this gritty yet entertaining tale of mid-twentieth-century Philly, readers young and old will be swept away to the past with Pat and Sean as they navigate a society filled with race-driven rumbles, young romance, and the seductive lure of crime.