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23 Shades of Black (1) (A Filomena Buscarsela Mystery)
by Wishnia, Ken
- New
- Paperback
- Condition
- New
- ISBN 10
- 1604865873
- ISBN 13
- 9781604865875
- Seller
-
Walla Walla, Washington, United States
2 Copies Available from This Seller
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About This Item
PM Press, 2012-06-01. Paperback. New. 23 Shades of Black is socially conscious crime fiction. It takes place in New York City in the early 1980s, i.e., the Reagan years, and was written partly in response to the reactionary discourse of the time, when the current thirty-year assault on the rights of working people began in earnest, and the divide between rich and poor deepened with the blessing of the political and corporate elites. But it is not a political tract, it?s a kick-ass novel that was nominated for the Edgar and the Anthony Awards, and made Booklist?s Best First Mysteries of the Year. The heroine, Filomena Buscarsela, is an immigrant who experienced tremendous poverty and injustice in her native Ecuador, and who grew up determined to devote her life to helping others. She tells us that she really should have been a priest, but since that avenue was closed to her, she chose to become a cop instead. The problem is that as one of the first Latinas on the NYPD, she is not just a woman in a man?s world, she is a woman of color in a white man?s world. And it?s hell. Filomena is mistreated and betrayed by her fellow officers, which leads her to pursue a case independently in the hopes of being promoted to detective for the Rape Crisis Unit. Along the way, she is required to enforce unjust drug laws that she disagrees with, and to betray her own community (which ostracizes her as a result) in an undercover operation to round up illegal immigrants. Several scenes are set in the East Village art and punk rock scene of the time, and the murder case eventually turns into an investigation of corporate environmental crime from a working class perspective that is all-too-rare in the genre. And yet this thing is damn funny, too.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Earthlight Books
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- SKU1007334
- Title
- 23 Shades of Black (1) (A Filomena Buscarsela Mystery)
- Author
- Wishnia, Ken
- Format/Binding
- Paperback
- Book Condition
- New
- Quantity Available
- 2
- ISBN 10
- 1604865873
- ISBN 13
- 9781604865875
- Publisher
- PM Press
- Place of Publication
- Oakland
- Date Published
- 2012-06-01
Terms of Sale
Earthlight Books
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives erroneously described or damaged.
About the Seller
Earthlight Books
Biblio member since 2007
Walla Walla, Washington
About Earthlight Books
We are a family owned and operated full-service bookstore with a storefront located in Walla Walla, Washington and our online warehouse located in Olympia, Washington. Since 1973 we have been filling the literary needs of this wonderful community in the Walla Walla Valley. Over the past 48 years our shop here has become a staple of this vibrant local economy, a beautiful downtown scene and an informed intelligentsia. We sell books through our storefront, our website, and a book-mobile that travels to festivals and fairs.
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