Jade Dupree is a beautician and an undertaker’s assistant
with a gift for smoothing the ravages of death from the
faces of her clientele. But her strange talent isn’t the
only thing that sets her apart from the townspeople of
tiny Drexel, Mississippi.
Jade is half-black and
the unacknowledged bastard daughter of Drexel’s “first
lady,” the imperious Lucille Longier. Jade’s half sister,
the pale, fragile, and legitimate Marlena, is married to
Lucas Bramlett, the wealthiest man in the region. While
the entire town knows of the blood bond between the two
women, no one dares speak the truth out loud.
Though her talents as a hairdresser are highly
sought after by Drexel’s elite, Jade accepts that she’ll
never truly be part of the town and lives her life the
best she can. But on one hot summer day in 1952, Jade’s
world is turned inside out when Marlena, on a tryst with
her lover, is savagely beaten and her young daughter
kidnapped. Determined to find her niece before it’s too
late, Jade accepts help from a white sheriff’s deputy,
Frank Kimble. The forbidden attraction that ignites
between them threatens to add to the violence already
brewing in town.
Carolyn Haines has written
several acclaimed mysteries, but here she mines much
darker, more serious territory, resulting in a
suspenseful, lyrical, passionate, and literary crime
novel.
© 2003-2024 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy