A songbird is silenced ... by murder.

With her soulful voice and delicate beauty, Starr Hendrix seemed destined to live up to her name and hit it big as a jazz singer. But her career ended before it began, and Mali's father offered Starr a second chance by giving her top billing as singer for his popular jazz band's latest show. Mali isn't surprised when Starr doesn't show — but everyone is shocked when the troubled woman is found savagely murdered....

The prime suspect is a low-life pimp with a grudge against Starr. But then the pimp stops a bullet — and everyone suspects Starr's devastated father of exacting his own revenge. Mali vows to use her experience as a former cop to find the real killer. Her search will take her in and out of the "three B's" of Harlem: the beauty shops, barbershops, and the bars. But it will also lead Mali directly into the path of a killer — one who, if not stopped, will almost surely strike again....

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"[A] sharp-edged, appealing heroine."
— Publishers Weekly

"What Grace Edwards does so well ... is to root us firmly and quickly in her Harlem setting."
— Chicago Tribune

"A thought-provoking mystery ... in which the obvious suspect could not have done the crime."
— The Midwest Book Review

"Edwards is a real magician, conjuring up a working-class Harlem neighborhood and its rich blend of citizens with warmth and humor."
— Booknews from The Poisoned Pen


Don't miss Grace Edwards's other Mali Anderson mysteries:

No Time to Die
A Toast Before Dying
If I Should Die

Available wherever Bantam Books are sold

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The Mali Anderson Mysteries Web site

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Grace F. Edwards was born and raised in Harlem and now lives in Brooklyn. She is the author of the novel In the Shadow of the Peacock, and of three previous Mali Anderson mysteries, If I Should Die, A Toast Before Dying (a featured alternate selection of the Mystery Guild), and No Time to Die.

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