It was the summer of 1964 when three young men were murdered. Their crime? They had come to Mississippi to help Black citizens get the right to vote. This was a troubled time in a troubled place and this was where Violet and Marigold Richards lived. Their parents tried to teach them how to live in a white world, but things went horribly wrong for both of them and they found themselves on the run. Can they find their way out of racially oppressive Jackson, Mississippi, and make a life elsewhere?
Violet and Marigold are well-developed characters who once had very different plans for how their lives would go. Neither had planned to become a murderer or unexpectedly pregnant and the victim of an abusive man. Told in their voices, ANYWHERE TO RUN follows the lives of the sisters as they try to survive their new realities which now house seeming insurmountable obstacles. The secondary characters are totally believeable. With a few exceptions, they are flawed and dangerous. Their impact on Violet's and Marigold's lives was indelible.
Wanda M. Morris has crafted a gripping story that addresses serious themes which include racism, inequalities, and family. I found ANYWHERE TO RUN to be thought-provoking and memorable. Highly recommended.
It’s the summer of 1964 and three innocent men are
brutally murdered for trying to help Black Mississippians
secure the right to vote. Against this backdrop, twenty-two
year old Violet Richards finds herself in more trouble than
she’s ever been in her life. Suffering a brutal attack
of her own, she kills the man responsible. But with the
color of Violet’s skin, there is no way she can escape
Jim Crow justice in Jackson, Mississippi. Before anyone can
find the body or finger her as the killer, she decides to
run. With the help of her white beau, Violet escapes. But
desperation and fear leads her to hide out in the small
rural town of Chillicothe, Georgia, unaware that danger may
be closer than she thinks.
Back in Jackson, Marigold, Violet’s older sister,
has dreams of attending law school. Working for the
Mississippi Summer Project, she has been trying to use her
smarts to further the cause of the Black vote. But Marigold
is in a different kind of trouble: she’s pregnant and
unmarried. After news of the murder brings the police to her
door, Marigold sees no choice but to flee Jackson too. She
heads North seeking the promise of a better life and no more
segregation. But has she made a terrible choice that
threatens her life and that of her unborn child?
Two sisters on the run—one from the law, the other
from social shame. What they don’t realize is that
there’s a man hot on their trail. This man has his own
brand of dark secrets and a disturbing motive for finding
the sisters that is unknown to everyone but him . . .
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