num_pages: 304
description: Murder casts a shadow over the soul of Harlem....When she's not studying for her master's or dropping in on her father's jazz gigs, ex-cop Mali Anderson checks out the scene at Harlem's smoky Half-Moon Bar.  She wasn't there for singer-bartender Thea Morris's birthday party, but someone else was--someone who shot Thea to death outside in the alley.  Was it her boyfriend, now sitting in jail on suspicion of murder? His sister insists he's innocent--and wants her friend Mali to clear his name.Thea herself is a a lonely beauty in an apartment too deluxe for a woman living on tip money, with a gamut of lovers from an aspiring actor to an ambitious politician.  It will take all Mali's savvy--and sources from street-corner buzz to uptown cocktail chat--to unravel Thea's life and death.  And it will take her every survival instinct to catch a killer who will kill again to keep a deadly secret.
language: English
title: A Toast Before Dying
titlecomplete: A Toast Before Dying (Mali Anderson)
genres: Crime, Mystery Thriller, Mystery, African American
ratings_count: 130
places: Harlem, New York City, New York
series: Mali Anderson
publisher: Bantam