N
Subtitle: a romantic mystery
By: Louis Edwards.
Publisher: Dutton
Published: 1997
Place of publication: New York, N.Y., U.S.A
Language: eng
Number of pages: 228
Subjects: African Americans -- Fiction.; New Orleans (La.) -- Fiction.
Genres: Fiction.
Description: N: A Romantic Mystery opens with a bang, literally, as Aimee DuBois is awakened at three a.m. by the ringing of her phone. She lifts the receiver to her ear only to hear two loud gunshots. Somewhere in the humid New Orleans night, the handset of a pay phone dangles by its cord, picking up only the sound of footsteps running away in the dark.

How did Aimee, a well-educated and independent journalist who runs an alternative newspaper, wind up on the other end of such a call? It all begins with the shooting of an eighteen-year-old boy on the steps of his high school. The only clue is a locket inscribed with the letter N. As Aimee investigates, she is befriended by a drug dealer named Strip, who is as sweet and sexy as he is dangerous.

With Strip as her guide, Aimee plunges into a side of New Orleans that takes her by surprise - from Miss Margie, the forty-year-old, self-assured mother of three who controls the neighborhood drug trade, to dapper Doc Carey who runs the House of Champions, otherwise known as The New Orleans Boxing Club.

As her investigation deepens, so do Aimee's feelings for Strip. Everything she's been taught to think about men like him is called into question, along with her ideas about herself and her community. N becomes more than just a clue to a killer - it becomes a clue to her own sense of self.