Outside Child: A Novel of Murder and New Orleans - Tapa dura

Split print run, 2000 hardcover, 1000 trade paperback

Pre-Katrina New Orleans: Ladonis Washington finds success within her grasp after the grisly death of her business mentor. But will she risk her brother’s life in her search for the truth? When Tim Ganen ends up in the blades of a New Orleans paddle boat, a grieving Ladonis finds opportunity. Tim was her mentor, a white man willing to advise and guide a young, ambitious, well-educated black woman who grew up in the Magnolia Housing Project. Now his death—the manner of his death and his secrets—opens a door to promotion and success.But Ladonis is in over her head from the start. Floating Palace Steamboat Company CEO Bret Collins and Marketing Vice President Lamar Kasdan force Ladonis into their personal worlds of rivalry and deceit. Her initial forays place her in increasing jeopardy. Only her brother HeartTrouble seems able to rescue and deliver her from the villains and the dangers they threaten.HeartTrouble comes to her aid with intelligence, street experience, even attitude. In any other circumstances, Ladonis would have rejected her younger brother’s street smarts. Will he renew Ladonis’ understanding in the values she has scorned and abandoned, and, in turn, discover value in her ambitions? Not before sister and brother face death together.In Outside Child, Alice Wilson-Fried has written a debut mystery novel that reveals more than circumstances of murder and its resolution. Alice’s childhood in the Magnolia Project and her life thereafter in New Orleans proper has enabled this talented storyteller to open up the world of native-born New Orleans blacks, their communities and their abilities to succeed in their city. Alice takes readers on a tour of a place and society that has raised questions and enlivened curiosity since the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.