River of Secrets by Roger Johns

This is a classic “who done it”.   Johns puts together a good mystery with a likeable and flawed Detective Wallace Hartman.  A flamboyantly colorful white politician is murdered and an equally notable disbarred black attorney is accused of the murder.  Is it a racial incident, is it a political crime or one of revenge.   Hartman finds herself doubting who she can trust in this complex mystery.

Johns does a nice job tying the current racial tension to his plot.  Sadly it often feels we are one step forward and two steps back in racial inequality.   John illustrates both prejudice and the willingness of good people to look beyond color for solutions to their problems.

This was a good story and an excellent book.

I recommend it. 

This book may have been received free of charge from a publisher or a publicist. That will NEVER have a bearing on my recommendations.