Norman Kelley

Follow the exploits, including two violent attempts on her life, of the strong, intelligent and independent Nina Halligan, a former New York prosecutor turned private investigator, in Black Heat: A Nina Halligan Mystery by Norman Kelley (1997). Watch bodies pile up as Halligan works to find a missing person — the daughter of civil rights leader Malik Martin, who was slain more than 20 years before — and undertakes to solve the murder of Martin; she also offers ongoing criticism of show more dueling black-liberation camps, which can at moments make this seem like a thinly disguised work of cultural criticism. While the ending may be too tidy for some, the ride is griping, and the blending of fiction with real history and real issues, from afro-centrism to the proliferation of conservative store-front “McChurches” to the repatriation of African art, works well in this novel, the first in the series of Nina Halligan mysteries. show less