Grace, Howard Owen
Grace, Howard Owen
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Grace

Author: Howard Owen

Narrator: Kevin Kenerly

Unabridged: 6 hr 25 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/12/2019

Synopsis

Life is cheap on the poor side of town. For more than two decades, young black kids have been disappearing from Richmond’s East End. No bodies have ever been found, and the missing boys haven’t received much attention from police or the media. When the uncle of the latest missing kid takes matters into his own hands and holds the daily newspaper’s publisher hostage in the paper’s lobby, Willie Black gets involved, and things start to change.The world’s oldest night cops reporter knows something about the inequities of race and income. When Sam McNish, a crusader for social justice who grew up in the same hardscrabble Oregon Hill neighborhood as Willie, is arrested shortly after a child’s body is discovered, the police start making the case that McNish has been the demonic force behind all the boys’ disappearances.Willie, after working the traps he’s developed from his too-many years as a reporter, isn’t so sure. As Willie teases out the real story, he manages to antagonize his publisher and the city’s power structure as well as police chief L.D. Jones, but experience has taught him that the more people he angers, the closer he probably is to the truth. Along the way, he forms a strange alliance with Big Boy Sunday, a dangerous man who exhibits a strong interest in seeing that Willie finds the truth—although Willie will learn that Big Boy wants parts of that truth to remain hidden.

About Howard Owen

Howard Owen has been a longtime newspaperman, working at everything from reporter to sports editor to editorial pages editor. He has been writing fiction since 1989. He and his wife, Karen, live in Richmond, Virginia.

About Kevin Kenerly

Kevin Kenerly, an Earphones Award–winning narrator, earned a BA at Olivet College. A longtime member of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, he has acted in more than twenty seasons, playing dozens of roles.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Kevintipple

The fifth in the series, Grace: A Willie Black Mystery, opens early in December 2014 a few months after the preceding novel, The Bottom. Kids have been vanishing for years from Richmond’s East End. Nobody has been doing much about it because of racism, the fact that kids come from poor families, or......more

Goodreads review by Sheila

Willie Black, agnostic, sometimes angry, old-school aging reporter on the late-night crime-beat, is back condemning and redeeming himself in another Richmond Virginia mystery from author Howard Owen. The crime-beat is the bottom of the barrel as far as reporting jobs go, but Black needs and maybe ev......more

Goodreads review by Debra

GRACE BY HOWARD OWEN is the fifth in the WILLIE BLACK series. For me it's the first time I've read the author and totally enjoyed this crime/thriller novel. Willie Black is the old school reporter. He is investigating a serial killer . Black is tough & hard boiled investigative reporter but he is a......more

Goodreads review by Shannon

Willie Black is a hard-living journalist. When his office is held hostage by the uncle of a murdered child Willie finds himself in the middle of a case. This is the 5th book in a series, but it is the first one I have read. While occasionally I felt like I missing parts of the story, in general, I d......more

Goodreads review by Linda

Howard Owen was a Richmond reporter and his descriptions of Richmond locales and community ring true. This mystery is sometimes hard to follow if you haven't read earlier books in the series.It is satisfying and a quick read.......more

Quotes

“A strong entry in the reporter-sleuth subgenre.” Booklist

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