Book Review: Do or Die

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Do or Die     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Grace F. Edwards
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Ethnic
Series: Mali Anderson # 4
Doubleday, Jul 2000, $22.95, 272 pp.

To recover from the traumatic aftermath of hunting and catching a serial killer, Mali Anderson, her significant other Tad, and her father book a cruise on the QE2. The liner is hosting a jazz festival. Balmy days and romantic nights ease some of the tension before a much mellower Mali leaves the ship.

However, her tranquility ends when her father and a close friend Ozzie Hendrix share a gig at Club Harlem. Someone slit the throat of Ozzie’s daughter, leaving the man totally distraught and nearly broken. Mali’s father tries to console his musician friend, but Ozzie soon disappears. Almost simultaneously, his daughter’s ex-pimp is found murdered. Mali believes Ozzie went over the edge and killed the person he felt murdered his beloved child. Mali begins her own investigation hoping to find out that Ozzie is innocent before the police arrest him for murder in the first degree.

The heroine is a strong, independent African-American who knows how to work within the system to change it for the better. She makes a great role model for all people regardless of race or gender. Mali stars in an exciting who-done-it in which she shows how much she cares for her loved ones and friends even when she questions their innocence. Grace T. Edwards has penned a thought provoking mystery in DO OR DIE in which the obvious suspect could not have done the crime. The fourth Mali Anderson novel is a triumphant urban mystery that will bring much satisfaction to sub-genre fans.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner