Harriet Klausner's Review Archive
During a family reunion, a man who lives on Forest Street drops by to beg Woody who has a lot of political and criminal connections to help him find his missing granddaughter who was last seen at a local grocery store. When Woody and Ivy go to the store where the granddaughter was last seen, the owner gives them a ring she left behind. That piece of jewelry is tied to a murder case that took place years ago, one in which many people felt the wrong man was convicted. As Woody, Ivy, and Cassandra delve further into the two cases, somebody is out to keep them quiet at any cost.
The protagonists are black, the year is 1965 eight days after the assassination of Martin Luther King. Riots have erupted in Chicago and the national guard is called in to restore order. Charlotte Carter gives her readers a fine sense of place and time through a strong descriptive story that seems common for that era. Told from the perspective of a twenty-year-old college student, the audience learns how blacks felt about their position in society back them. JACKSON PARK is the first installment in what looks to be a great new series.