|
[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
The South Side of Chicago was in a state of turmoil. Martin Luther King, Jr. was just murdered and the people were angered and started toriot. Businesses were either vandalized or burned to the ground and destroyed.The unrest traveled to Cook Countyıs Hyde Park where Woodson and Ivy Lisle livein an apartment hotel with their twenty year old grand niece, Cassandra. Cassandra has not had the best of lives. She has no idea whoher father is and when she turned nine her mother married and left Cassandra inthe care of her grandmother. Cassandra was filled with anger at the world andknew that she would eventually get into severe trouble. The first bit of luckshe had was when her grandmother died and she was sent to live with her granduncle and grand aunt, Woody and Ivy Lisle. The Lisleıs always wanted to have children but werenıt ableto and because of that they treated Cassandra as if she were their daughter.With their help, Cassandra learned to take control of her anger and was able toattend Debs College. Now Cassandraıs life was at a crossroads again. Woody was awell respected and feared man in the community, but he possessed a somewhatshady past. No one quite knew what Woody did to get such powerful friends, notonly in the police department but in the underworld community as well. But theone thing everyone in the neighborhood knew was that if something needed to bedone, Woody Isle was the man to see. An old friend of Woodyıs, Clay Jackson, asked him to find his grand daughter,Lavelle. Clay thought that the police had arrested Lavelle but when Woodyinquired about her he discovered that the police had no record of an arrest. Cassandra urged Woody to look into the situation and withher help and some help from Ivy, he starts to investigate Lavelleıs bafflingdisappearance. The inquiry leads the trio into the world of prostitution andmurder where all of their lives are at risk. Lavelleıs disappearance seems to involve almost everyonethat Cassandra knows and loves. Soon her best friend and fellow Debs student,Bobby Vaughan, also mysteriously disappears. JACKSON PARK grabbed me from the first page. Author,Charlotte Carter knows how to write as a twenty year old woman who is filledwith dread, anger, and pain. Itıs almost as if Ms. Carter might have felt thesame way when she was that age. Itıs powerfully moving. Yet the novel is filledwith dark humor. You find yourself smiling and at the same time, you canıtunderstanding how you can see the funny side at that specific point in thebook. Ms. Carter adds a lot of surprises in her story as well. Woody Lisleıs character, while very loving and supportive ofCassandra and full of love for his wife, Ivy, is also frightening. Ms. Carterdoesnıt tell us much about Woody but does fill us in with enough hints abouthis past to let us know that he is someone to be feared and taken seriously. The book is short, only 224 pages, but each page is filledwith important information. Thereıs no wasted words here. Charlotte Carter gives us a first-rate mystery in JACKSONPARK. She wraps up the end nicely. Iıd like to read more about Cassandra,Woody, and Ivy because I liked the characters and their relationship to eachother so much. JACKSON PARK is a fantastic book.
Reviewed by Sharon Katz, February 2003
This book has more than one review. Click here to show all.
[ Top ]
QUICK SEARCH:
Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]
| 
