ROOTS OF MURDER by R. Jean Reid brought to mind a couple of
books: THE QUIET GAME by Greg Iles and A TIME TO
KILL by John Grisham. All
three novels deal with race issues and violence in small
Mississippi towns. The three books are very different when
it comes to writing and plotting, but it gives ROOTS OF
MURDER a place to fit better than trying to put it in a
genre box.
A drunk driver killed Thom leaving his wife, Nell, to take
care of their kids and run the Pelican Bay Town
Crier, the
newspaper founded by his grandfather. But the drunk
driver\'s family harasses Nell, threatening bodily harm to
her and her kids if she doesn\'t call off the dogs.
Then, a friend of Nell\'s finds buried bones in the woods,
now visible after lightning knocked over a tree that hid
them from the world. It\'s clear the bones are at least 50
years old, and Nell wants to find out their identity and how
they died. Nell wants to uncover the truth, but many rich,
white folks in Pelican Bay think past events should
remain buried. So the threats continue.
Nell has friends who support her including employees at the
newspaper;, Marcus, a black candidate running for mayor of
Pelican Bay; Kate, who runs the town\'s bicycle shop and
found the bones; and of course, her kids. There is much
more going on including more background and candidates for
the mayor\'s race and much history of how white people
mistreated blacks.
Reid gives us an interesting story and fairly well-
developed characters, but it feels like so many other books.
Perhaps, it\'s that with so much
background, the tale lagged in places and the prose and
dialog couldn\'t make up for the pacing. I understand how
difficult it is to make a book
unique, and one wants it to resonate because the subject
matter is important. It\'s especially timely with what\'s
going on with the political race today, and I think the
story has
important points to make. I appreciate Nell\'s difficulty
and strength, but for some reason, her character didn\'t
call to me. I felt the closest to Marcus,
who befriends Nell earlier in the story and helps her
search for justice. For those who liked the Grisham and
Iles books, give this one a try. Hopefully some of those
who need its message will read it as well.
With a flash of blinding headlights and the scream of metal
on metal, Nell McGraw's husband Thom is killed and her life
is shattered. Now she's alone in Thom's Mississippi
hometown, trying to care for her grieving children while
returning to work as the publisher of the Pelican Bay
Crier, the newspaper Thom's grandfather founded.
When Nell is called to a site where human bones have been
found, she's determined to see the guilty parties receive
the justice they deserve. But in Pelican Bay, the stories of
the past may be too dangerous to be told. Threatened by the
men who want their secrets to stay buried and the family of
the drunk driver who killed Thom, Nell finds that if justice
is to be served, it will come with a deadly price.
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