A 2022 Essence, Bustle and The Root Book Pick

From the award-winning author of Speaking of Summer comes a "breathlessly suspenseful" (Lisa Unger), truthful look into the lives of women who drink to survive or just to cope, with a provocative narrator who carries readers along an emotional journey to acceptance.

Tragedy and Victor Powell have moved to the desirable but dark Grayson Glens enclave of dream homes just outside of Chicago. Stressed urbanites, they've got to live large in real life to stay large online. With only a few blacks in their elite gated community, they settle in but never quite feel at home. Then, a missing young black woman floats up in the Grayson River.

Is the spirit of the mysterious scarlet-lettered woman, Raven McCoy, haunting Grayson during the pandemic?

Tragedy, haunted by her own difficult checkered past versus Victor's sterling history, thinks so. The pressure to manage his image for profit drives her to drink, even when his trying teen daughter visits. But Victor's ex-wife, the Grayson gossip and a female detective all close in on Tragedy's unraveling life. Then Tragedy spirals into addiction, past secrets and the local women's fight for justice for a woman.