Details at Ten

Georgia Barnett is a Chicago television news reporter with ideals but no illusions. She knows the pressures and expectations of her highly politicized profession, and as an African American woman, she recognizes that her work will inevitably be judged within the constructs of race and gender. When a young black girl disappears after identifying a drive-by shooter's car on live TV during an interview with Georgia, the reporter is caught between guilt-ridden responsibility for the child's fate and her awareness that the powers-that-be want nothing to do with another story from the projects.

Detective Doug Eckart understands that all too well, and it's not long before Georgia and Doug join forces to find Butter and bring her abductors to justice. Their search takes them through Chicago's South Side, a once-proud neighborhood brought to its knees by drugs, violence, and apathy. As Georgia moves gingerly through the minefields of gangland territory, she becomes both the pursuer and the pursued; treachery and danger are the hallmarks of this bleak world.

Georgia is immensely likeable: her quick wit and no-nonsense feminism may remind readers of another African American mystery heroine, Charlotte Carter's sassy, brassy sax player Nanette Hayes (Drumsticks, Rhode Island Red). Her personality and sarcastic asides buoy a novel handicapped by an illogical plot that unfolds at an often glacial pace; author Ardella Garland (nom de plume of novelist Yolanda Joe) may have spent 12 years as a CBS news writer, but this work lacks the suspense of late-breaking news. To readers captivated by Georgia's voice, however, such shortcomings will no doubt be minor, easily forgiven offenses. --Kelly Flynn