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The Demise of Luleta Jones by Mark Allen Boone Blacksmith Books
book review by Amelia Blyden
"But you've got to be careful, Pugh…The people who killed Luleta wouldn't think twice about hurting the messenger who brings out the truth."
Luleta Jones, an uncommon woman with contrary ideals and talents, is fired when she attempts to raise standards at a public school. Later, she is found hanging from a rafter in her apartment within a four block middle class enclave noted for its snobbishness. Theophilous Pugh, a staff writer for a local newspaper, is hell-bent on finding out why. Was it suicide?
The enlightening view of middle class African Americans living back in the 1990s in Chicago, Illinois, and Nashville is a key element of the story. Boone has created a mystery to introduce a variety of conflicted characters—not that back stabbing, family infighting, and murder are exclusively African American norms. Journalist Pugh introduces new characters in successive chapters by interviewing each one. The universality of these people inhabit a story to which readers of any race can relate. Their lifestyle may be an eye-opener to readers who still think all African Americans exist in the same class, or who might not ever have imagined the existence of such bourgeois folk.
Boone's plotting is clever, his writing smooth and educational with pervasive colloquialisms familiar in African American culture. At times, this may not be an altogether favorable view of African Americans, but this first novel is an excellent read—not of the chair-gripping, page-turning variety, yet with an engrossing story line and a deep mystery that stays veiled from the readers until the end.