{"id":1994,"date":"2011-02-14T14:15:25","date_gmt":"2011-02-14T19:15:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sistahsontheshelf.com\/blog\/?p=1954"},"modified":"2020-05-09T01:10:15","modified_gmt":"2020-05-09T05:10:15","slug":"dying-for-a-change-by-sean-reynolds-feb-2011-pick-of-the-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/?p=1994","title":{"rendered":"Dying for a Change by Sean Reynolds (Feb. 2011 Pick of the Month)"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Publisher\/Date:\u00a0<\/strong> Suspect Thoughts Press, Sept. 2009
\nGenre(s):\u00a0<\/strong> Mystery, Suspense
\n Pages:\u00a0<\/strong> <\/strong>256
\nWebsite:<\/strong>\u00a0 http:\/\/www.booksbyseanreynolds.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Rating:<\/strong> \"★\"\"★\"\"★\"\"★\"\"★\" <\/p><\/strong><\/p>\n

The year is 1965, the place is Chicago. The streets are hot, not just because it\u2019s August, but because racism lives and breathes with a fierce determination to tear apart any civility between blacks and whites.<\/p>\n

In the midst of this is cool-as-a-fan Chan Parker, 33-year-old numbers runner, working her dead-end profession with all the enthusiasm of a broken toaster. With her boyish good looks, she makes much more money than the average Negro, but being on the bottom rung of a mobster operation making its money off the backs of blacks isn\u2019t her idea of a career. As Chan says in DYING FOR A CHANGE<\/em><\/strong>, \u201cProstitution is doing any job you would rather not do, and I was beginning to feel whorish.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bright spots in Chan\u2019s life are her 55 black-over-black T-Bird, her eclectic jazz collection, and best friend Henrietta Wild Cherry. A 300-pound drag queen, Henrietta has been Chan\u2019s rock since childhood, and when the lady asks for help finding a fellow dragster who\u2019s come up dead, Chan is hot on the trail of discovering what happened to Miss Dove.<\/p>\n

Dying for a Change<\/em> paints a vivid scene of old Chicago as she and Henrietta track down a killer. In the midst of it all, Chan\u2019s job proves to be a more of a liability while discerning who\u2019s on the right side of the law \u2013 and who\u2019s twisted in the game.<\/p>\n

Sean Reynolds\u2019 prose in Dying<\/em> is deftly captivating, and the slang from 1960s Chicago is authentic, refreshing, and a character in its own right. As you read, you\u2019re transported to that time of juke joints and back rooms, a time when being the wrong color on the wrong side of town could mean trouble. Dying<\/em> is a mystery, history lesson and cool suspense at the same time.\u00a0 I would have liked to see more romance, but nonetheless, Reynolds knows her genre, knows her people, and most importantly, knows how to tell a fantastic story.<\/p>\n

Reviewed February 2011<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Publisher\/Date:\u00a0 Suspect Thoughts Press, Sept. 2009 Genre(s):\u00a0 Mystery, Suspense Pages:\u00a0 256 Website:\u00a0 http:\/\/www.booksbyseanreynolds.com The year is 1965, the place is Chicago. The streets are hot, not just because it\u2019s August, but because racism lives and breathes with a fierce determination to tear apart any civility between blacks and whites. In the midst of this is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[4,17],"tags":[29,44,120,168,214,333,374,417,472,483],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1994"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1994"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1994\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7394,"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1994\/revisions\/7394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}