Terry Shames's Blog: 7 Criminal Minds, page 143

What's in a Name(sake)?

By AbirThis week's question: Review a black American author’s work that you think a white person would love
Wow. Okay then.
Interesting question. Bit of a weird one. I’m not really sure where to start.
I’m not white, so my first reaction was, ’how would I know what y’all would love?’.
My second reaction was – surely it depends on the white person in question? 
 Maybe it’s a North American thing, and I am conscious that your history has left you with a legacy that is racially charged...

My Cup of Tea: A Review by James W. Ziskin

Review an African-American author’s work that I love.

From Jim



I’m a sucker for well-written stories, no matter the genre. Add an interesting locale and a rich cast of characters, and I’m hooked. DEATH IN D MINOR, by Alexia Gordon, hits all the notes for me.

I met Alexia at the Left Coast Crime conference in Honolulu in 2017 when she was nominated for Best Debut Mystery Novel for MURDER IN G MAJOR. Spoiler alert: she won. That same year she was nominated for an Agatha Award for Best First....

The Underground Railroad

Review a black American author’s work that you think a white person would love.
by Dietrich
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead is a gripping tale of escape from slavery in the deep south. It’s set before the civil war and looks at the network of black and white activists who helped slaves escape northward.
The story follows young Cora as she escapes along with other slaves from a Georgia cotton plantation, then tries to elude slave-catchers, patrollers, lynch mobs and informers. The...

A writer for our time

Terry Shames here. Our charge this week is to review a black American writer that we think white readers would enjoy.
It almost feels superfluous for me to review Attica Locke. She has received  multiple award nominations, including Edgar Award nominations, and was winner of the 2019 Edgar award for Best Novel. I would leave her work to the expert reviewers, except that I’ve been a fan since her first book came out. When I read Black Water Rising, I was stunned and did something I’d never...

Introducing Malcolm Gladwell

Review a black American author’s work that you think a white person would love.
Brenda Chapman here.
This week's question first proved a challenge for me. I can't say that I consider an author's ethnicity when I select a book and I don't slot the novels in my memory by the author's colour. However, in a happy confluence of events, I'm currently reading Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell, an author of some renown with a Jamaican heritage. My neighbour and fellow book club member...

Easy Does It

Discuss a source of inspiration you’ve derived from a black American author. How has their work affected yours?

by Paul D. Marks

Many things and many people inspire me one way or another. But as a mystery/crime writer, I really enjoy Walter Mosley and his character Easy Rawlins. And as much as I like Easy, I might even like his sidekick Mouse more.

Pretty much anyone who knows me knows I have a thing for L.A., past and present. LA history. LA culture. And novels and movies set in the City of the...

Typin' and Dreamin' (and getting merry like Christmas), by Catriona

Discuss a source of inspiration you’ve derived from a black American author. How has their work affected yours? 
I grew up a voracious reader before YA was a thing. Consequently I went straight from Enid Blyton’s school stories to bonkbusters, bodice rippers and – thank God – Virago modern classics and the Women’s Press. It was these last two imprints that threw Maya Angelou, Alice Walker and Toni Morrison in my path and I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, The Bluest Eye and The Color Purple...

Tipping my hat to Mr. Mosley by Cathy Ace

Discuss a source of inspiration you’ve derived from a black American author. How has their work affected yours?


I only had to think about my answer to this question for a millisecond – the answer is:
WHO? Walter Mosley
WHAT? Well, quite a lot, actually!
Walter Mosley



I think the first Mosley book I ever read was Devil in a Blue Dress…though I might have come to that one later, via a route I set off on because of another of his Easy Rawlins books. 



The most recent was Down the River Unto the...

Pulling Weeds

Discuss a source of inspiration you’ve derived from a black American author. How has their work affected yours?

- From Frank

If you don't know me, then you might not know this - I'm a white, middle-aged male who grew up in a city that was easily 90% white. Moreover, I'd have to go back to double check demographics, but I believe a good chunk of that remaining ten percent was eastern Europeans, mostly from the states of the former Soviet Union. Thus, same basic shade as the ninety-plus.

It was...

Black Writers Who Inspired Me

Q in honor of Black History Month: Discuss a source of inspiration you’ve derived from a black American author. How has their work affected yours?
-from Susan
I’m going to mention two, in part because one is direct and obvious and I could not choose otherwise, and the other is like a wispy memory of something precious unless I dig it out especially and polish it. The writers, events, and experiences that affect my work tend to be like that – scattered, subconscious, called on at odd times,...