Books: Complexities of race, sexuality propel two gripping new mysteries

‘What You Leave Behind’ by Wanda M. Morris. Morrow, 384 pages, $18.99

Land scams have been around since the first person claimed ownership of a piece of property. The schemes may have gotten more sophisticated, the crooks more innovative and the methods, such as using technology, more advanced, but the goal is the same: greed. The more naïve and powerless the victims, the easier it is to dupe them.

In her third character-driven novel, Wanda M. Morris poignantly tackles land schemes, especially those that target lower-income communities, while sculpting a solid character who in saving property redeems herself. The gripping “What You Leave Behind” also works as a novel about racism, grief, rebuilding your life when your world has fallen apart and putting aside preconceived notions about others.

Black attorney Deena Wood’s busy life in Atlanta came to a screeching halt following a nasty divorce, being fired from a high-profile law firm and her mother’s death, though not in that order. This trifecta of personal woes resulted in her moving back to the house in which she grew up in Brunswick, Ga. Deena’s independence and confidence have eroded. She is grateful but also resents that she’s back living with her father. Deena also harbors some bitterness that her father remarried six months after his wife’s death to her mother’s friend, Ruth — “a pleasant enough” woman but not her mom. Deena needs “a dayclean” — a fresh start.

Deena quickly found a job in Brunswick, but it doesn’t match her skills or experience. She doesn’t feel she belongs anywhere. “I was what the Geechee folks called a bit of from-ya and … come-ya, which meant I was both from here and a visitor,” she says.

Regularly leaving work to aimlessly drive, she ends up near the trailer of Holcomb Gardner, an elderly Black man who orders her at gunpoint to leave. Holcomb keeps repeating that he won’t sell the oceanfront property that he and his late sister own. But about a week later, Deena discovers Holcomb has disappeared and the land is for sale.

 

Finding what happened to Holcomb leads Deena to others in Brunswick in the Black and brown communities who have lost their land to the legal theory of heirs’ rights. The land has been handed down from generation to generation but no paperwork nor a last will exists. Often white developers swoop in to sell the families’ property, especially targeting those who are poor, elderly, lack an education or who work several jobs to support their families.

Deena’s investigation energizes her, and her confidence gradually returns. As one character says, she’s back “exactly where she needs to be.”

The award-winning Morris skillfully sculpts the myriad three-dimensional characters in “What You Leave Behind,” especially Deena and her family. She gracefully weaves in the issues of heirs’ property rights and the Gullah-Geechee culture in a solid, thought-provoking, timely plot.

Behind the plot: Wanda M. Morris says her inspiration for “What You Leave Behind” came from a news story about a woman denied federal assistance to repair her home following a hurricane. The house had been in her family for generations but was tied up in “heirs’ property,” meaning it had been passed down without a legally designated owner. This makes it easy for a developer to convince just one heir — no matter how remote the relation is — to sell, forcing the other to sell. Low- and moderate-income communities of all ethnicities are targeted. “The more I researched the topic of heirs’ property, the more it struck me as a crime in plain sight. A home or property is often the single most valuable asset a family has and to lose it in such an unscrupulous manner is a travesty,” Morris wrote in an email.

Second in a trilogy

‘Hall of Mirrors’ by John Copenhaver. Pegasus Crime, 368 pages, $27.95

As a couple, Judy Nightingale and Philippa Watson are guarded about their relationship, as lesbian couples aren’t accepted in Washington, D.C., in 1954, the setting of John Copenhaver’s “Hall of Mirrors.” They are even more cautious because Judy is of mixed race, “passing for white” for years. They can only feel safe in their apartment and a few select gay bars.

Judy and Philippa share many interests, among them a love of mystery writer Ray Kane’s novels about private investigator Calvin McKey. They are excited to attend their favorite author’s book signing, an event that sets these two amateur sleuths on their next adventure.

They inadvertently learn that Kane is a pseudonym for Roger Raymond, whose photograph graces the novels’ book jackets, and that the books are co-written with Lionel Kane, his secret lover and “roommate.” Judy and Philippa understand that their relationship  mirrors that of Roger and Lionel, who also is Black.

The investigative skills of Judy and Philippa ramp up when Roger is found dead in his burned apartment. The police immediately rule the death a suicide, not interested in looking into the death of a gay man who lived with a Black man. The women refuse to believe the suicide theory, despite knowing Roger had just lost his government job, the victim of the anti-gay Lavendar Scare perpetuated by Joseph McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover. (They didn’t just go after “Communists.”)

Roger also was worried that book sales would plummet if the public discovered that their “macho” character was written by two gay men. The women’s trail leads to their old enemy, Adrian Bodgan, a homophobic spy and serial killer who is protected by the government.

“Hall of Mirrors” is the second in Copenhaver’s trilogy about Judy and Philippa. As in the first, “The Savage Kind,” the author explores questions of duality, secrecy and identity. Along the way, Judy will assume the last name of Nightingale as it suits her better.

The mirror metaphor is used several ways. It isn’t lost on Judy or Lionel that she is “passing for white” while he is “passing” for a white writer. That applies to their readers, “the macho white writer writing about macho white things,” says Lionel. “The mirror they thought they were peering into wasn’t a mirror at all but an illusion.” Iris Baker, Judy’s half-sister, deals with prejudice as a Black woman whose skills surpass her white co-workers in the city medical examiner’s office.

While Copenhaver keeps the mystery aspect of “Hall of Mirrors” moving briskly, his main focus is exploring the various relationships, especially that of Judy and Philippa, and the culture of the 1950s. “Weakness can pose as bravery in our world,” says Lionel, “and strength can be forged in tears.”

“Hall of Mirrors” delivers a skillful historical mystery. We hope that Copenhaver continues this exciting series beyond three novels.