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Willie Black #5
Grace
Life is cheap on the poor side of town. For more than two decades, young black kids have been disappearing from Richmond's East End. No bodies have ever been found, and the missing boys haven't received much attention from police or the media. When the uncle of the latest missing kid takes matters into his own hands and holds the daily newspaper's publisher hostage in the paper's lobby, Willie Black gets involved, and things start to change.
The world's oldest night cops reporter knows something about the inequities of race and income. When Sam McNish, a crusader for social justice who grew up in the same hardscrabble Oregon Hill neighborhood as Willie, is arrested shortly after a child's body is discovered, the police start making the case that McNish has been the demonic force behind all the boys' disappearances.
Willie, after working the traps he's developed from his too-many years as a reporter, isn't so sure.
As Willie teases out the real story, he manages to antagonize his publisher and the city's power structure as well as police chief L.D. Jones, but experience has taught him that the more people he angers, the closer he probably is to the truth. Along the way, he forms a strange alliance with Big Boy Sunday, a dangerous man who exhibits a strong interest in seeing that Willie finds the truth––although Willie will learn that Big Boy wants parts of that truth to remain hidden.
Grace is the name of a street that bisects Richmond like a belt from east to west, passing through all the city’s economic strata and brushing against its sometimes dark history. Grace is also the state that Willie, a man of large appetites and myriad vices, continues to seek with middling results.
Grace is Howard Owen’s fifth Willie Black mystery. The first, Oregon Hill, won the Dashiell Hammett Prize for best crime literature in the United States and Canada. The Willie Black series has received glowing reviews in The New York Times, Publishers’ Weekly, Kirkus Reviews and elsewhere.
The world's oldest night cops reporter knows something about the inequities of race and income. When Sam McNish, a crusader for social justice who grew up in the same hardscrabble Oregon Hill neighborhood as Willie, is arrested shortly after a child's body is discovered, the police start making the case that McNish has been the demonic force behind all the boys' disappearances.
Willie, after working the traps he's developed from his too-many years as a reporter, isn't so sure.
As Willie teases out the real story, he manages to antagonize his publisher and the city's power structure as well as police chief L.D. Jones, but experience has taught him that the more people he angers, the closer he probably is to the truth. Along the way, he forms a strange alliance with Big Boy Sunday, a dangerous man who exhibits a strong interest in seeing that Willie finds the truth––although Willie will learn that Big Boy wants parts of that truth to remain hidden.
Grace is the name of a street that bisects Richmond like a belt from east to west, passing through all the city’s economic strata and brushing against its sometimes dark history. Grace is also the state that Willie, a man of large appetites and myriad vices, continues to seek with middling results.
Grace is Howard Owen’s fifth Willie Black mystery. The first, Oregon Hill, won the Dashiell Hammett Prize for best crime literature in the United States and Canada. The Willie Black series has received glowing reviews in The New York Times, Publishers’ Weekly, Kirkus Reviews and elsewhere.
245 pages, Hardcover
First published October 20, 2016
13 people are currently reading
241 people want to read
About the author
Howard Owen
32 books67 followersHoward Owen was born March 1, 1949, in Fayetteville, N.C. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1971, journalism) and has a master's degree from Virginia Commonwealth University (1981, English).
He and his wife since 1973, Karen Van Neste Owen (the former publisher of Van Neste Books), live in Richmond, Va. He was a newspaper reporter and editor for 44 years.
Owen won The Dashiell Hammett Prize for crime literature in the United States and Canada for Oregon Hill, his 10th novel.
His first novel, "Littlejohn," was written in 1989, when he was 40. It was bought by The Permanent Press and published in 1992. Random House bought it from The Permanent Press and reissued it as a Villard hardcover in 1993 and a Vintage Contemporary paperback in 1994. It was nominated for the Abbey Award (American Booksellers) and Discovery (Barnes & Noble) award for best new fiction. It has sold, in all, more than 50,000 copies. It has been printed in Japanese, French and Korean; it has been a Doubleday Book Club selection; audio and large-print editions have been issued, and movie option rights have been sold.
His second novel, "Fat Lightning," came out as a Permanent Press book in 1994. It was bought by HarperCollins and was reissued as a Harper Perennial paperback in 1996. It received a starred review from Publishers' Weekly.
His third novel, "Answers to Lucky," was published by HarperCollins as a hardcover in 1996 and as a paperback in 1997. It received favorable reviews in The New York Times, Southern Living, GW, Publishers' Weekly, the Atlanta Constitution, the Baltimore Sun, the Memphis Commercial Appeal and numerous other publications. It was included in "The Best Novels of the Nineties: A Reader’s Guide."
His fourth novel, "The Measured Man," was published in hardcover by HarperCollins in 1997. It was praised in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Publishers' Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, the Raleigh News & Observer, the Orlando Sentinel, the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel and many other publications. It was one of the LA Times Book Reviews’ "Recommended Titles" for 1997. It was included in "The Best Novels of the Nineties: A Reader’s Guide."
Owen's fifth novel, "Harry and Ruth," was published by The Permanent Press in September of 2000 to critical acclaim from Kirkus, Publisher's Weekly and various weekly publications.
His sixth novel, "The Rail," was published in April of 2002. It is about (among other things) baseball and the parable of the talents. Owen won the 2002 Theresa Pollack Award for Words.
His seventh novel, "Turn Signal," was about a man whose muse drives him either to madness or to the best move he's ever made in his life. It came out in 2004 and was a Booksense selection for July of 2004.
His eighth novel, "Rock of Ages," is something of a sequel to his first novel, "Littlejohn." Georgia McCain returns to her hometown years after her father’s death to sell the family farm and finds herself immersed in baby-boomer guilt and a murder mystery. It was a Booksense pick for July of 2006.
His ninth novel, "The Reckoning," about ghosts of the ’60s, came out in late 2010 and received very positive reviews from, among others, Publishers Weekly and the New York Journal of Books.
His short story, "The Thirteenth Floor," part of "Richmond Noir," came out in early 2010.
The protagonist of “The Thirteenth Floor,” Willie Black, also is at the center of Owen’s 10th novel, “Oregon Hill,” which came in July of 2012 to very positive reviews in The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus and elsewhere. It's also an audio book.
Willie starred in future Owen novels: The Philadelphia Quarry (2013), Parker Field (2014), The Bottom (2015), Grace (2016) and The Devil's Triangle (2017). His 16th novel, Annie's Bones, comes out in April of 2018.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
November 24, 2019
The fifth in the series, Grace: A Willie Black Mystery, opens early in December 2014 a few months after the preceding novel, The Bottom. Kids have been vanishing for years from Richmond’s East End. Nobody has been doing much about it because of racism, the fact that kids come from poor families, or for some other reason. The bottom line is that young black kids have been disappearing for years now and Artesian Cole is the latest young boy to vanish.
But, this time is different as they have the child’s body. Despite being bagged and weighed down with rocks, Artesian Cole surfaced in the waters of a lake over in Bryon Park. In the fifth grade, he also attended an afternoon tutoring program at the “Children of God.” Local legend Sam McNish has been running the program for many years despite some opposition in the neighborhood who would rather see the property put to a better use as they see it.
The death of Artesian Cole soon causes the arrest of Sam McNish by the local cops. Not only is he subsequently blamed for the murder of Artesian Cole, he is publicly blamed for the disappearances of other children as well. A fact that does not sit at all well with Willie Black.
Reporter Willie Black is well aware that the evidence against McNish is barely better than fence line gossip. Having worked the police beat for many years he is also aware that often the local cops have it all wrong. Both these two factors push him to start investigating and digging into the case. As usual, his digging causes issues with local law enforcement as well as his bosses at the paper who would prefer him to accept the official line.
Grace: A Willie Black Mystery by Howard Owen builds on the previous books in the series. Along with the occasional references to previous books in the series, characters in this read continue to evolve and change. While one could read this one as the starting point, one could also go jump off the roof if one wanted to do so. It would be far better to avoid roof jumping as well as to start this very good series from the beginning, Oregon Hill.
Grace: A Willie Black Mystery
Howard Owen
http://www.howardowenbooks.com
The Permanent Press
http://www.thepermanentpress.com
October 2016
ISBN# 978-1-57962-434-7
Hardback (also available in audio and digital formats)
245 Pages
My reading copy came from the Central Downtown Branch of the Dallas Public Library System.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2019
But, this time is different as they have the child’s body. Despite being bagged and weighed down with rocks, Artesian Cole surfaced in the waters of a lake over in Bryon Park. In the fifth grade, he also attended an afternoon tutoring program at the “Children of God.” Local legend Sam McNish has been running the program for many years despite some opposition in the neighborhood who would rather see the property put to a better use as they see it.
The death of Artesian Cole soon causes the arrest of Sam McNish by the local cops. Not only is he subsequently blamed for the murder of Artesian Cole, he is publicly blamed for the disappearances of other children as well. A fact that does not sit at all well with Willie Black.
Reporter Willie Black is well aware that the evidence against McNish is barely better than fence line gossip. Having worked the police beat for many years he is also aware that often the local cops have it all wrong. Both these two factors push him to start investigating and digging into the case. As usual, his digging causes issues with local law enforcement as well as his bosses at the paper who would prefer him to accept the official line.
Grace: A Willie Black Mystery by Howard Owen builds on the previous books in the series. Along with the occasional references to previous books in the series, characters in this read continue to evolve and change. While one could read this one as the starting point, one could also go jump off the roof if one wanted to do so. It would be far better to avoid roof jumping as well as to start this very good series from the beginning, Oregon Hill.
Grace: A Willie Black Mystery
Howard Owen
http://www.howardowenbooks.com
The Permanent Press
http://www.thepermanentpress.com
October 2016
ISBN# 978-1-57962-434-7
Hardback (also available in audio and digital formats)
245 Pages
My reading copy came from the Central Downtown Branch of the Dallas Public Library System.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2019
October 7, 2016
Willie Black, agnostic, sometimes angry, old-school aging reporter on the late-night crime-beat, is back condemning and redeeming himself in another Richmond Virginia mystery from author Howard Owen. The crime-beat is the bottom of the barrel as far as reporting jobs go, but Black needs and maybe even loves the job, just as he loves and maybe even needs the woman who might become wife number four. He lives among the rich, grew up among the poor, belongs on both sides of most divides, and can’t be trusted not to break every good thing with too many drinks. But whatever harm Willie might do to himself or his relationships, he’s determined to see justice done for others, and Grace is a vividly real novel of poverty, life’s unfairness and discrimination, and the curious road to hope. The story’s contemporary relevance is pleasingly lowkey, with the character’s disrespect feeding into an honest respect for the reader. Willie Black’s trademark humor is sharp and relevant as ever. His jaded view of the changing world can and does lift at times. His rejection of religion is fierce, real, and vulnerable. And his recognition of life’s little lies is, “in all honesty,” all too true.
Saving lives walks side by side with losing souls in this novel, as a child goes missing and the pastor at his after-school program comes under suspicion. Would the cops search harder for the missing boy if he were white? Would they dig harder after the killer if he weren’t rich? And will Willie Black find his man, lose his girlfriend, or end up dead?
Waxing philosophical about healthcare reform, religion, and maybe grace, taking the risks no one else is willing to take, listening to cops and robbers all and earning their grudging respect, crossing boundaries and lines, Willie Black meets the grace of a loving woman, tries to throw it away, and offers grace to the bereaved, all in a wonderful novel of real, changing, trying, hoping, hurting people, making broken lives count. And grace is the key.
Disclosure: I was given a preview edition by the publisher and I offer my honest review.
Saving lives walks side by side with losing souls in this novel, as a child goes missing and the pastor at his after-school program comes under suspicion. Would the cops search harder for the missing boy if he were white? Would they dig harder after the killer if he weren’t rich? And will Willie Black find his man, lose his girlfriend, or end up dead?
Waxing philosophical about healthcare reform, religion, and maybe grace, taking the risks no one else is willing to take, listening to cops and robbers all and earning their grudging respect, crossing boundaries and lines, Willie Black meets the grace of a loving woman, tries to throw it away, and offers grace to the bereaved, all in a wonderful novel of real, changing, trying, hoping, hurting people, making broken lives count. And grace is the key.
Disclosure: I was given a preview edition by the publisher and I offer my honest review.
July 2, 2018
GRACE BY HOWARD OWEN is the fifth in the WILLIE BLACK series. For me it's the first time I've read the author and totally enjoyed this crime/thriller novel.
Willie Black is the old school reporter. He is investigating a serial killer . Black is tough & hard boiled investigative reporter but he is also a father & a grandfather. I loved Willie! He's the reporter who digs for the story no matter who it offends no matter what it takes he is determined to get the story, the honest and truthful story no matter what.
Mr Owen has come up with a character that really grows on you and I can't wait to find more Willie Black books.
I recieved this book free from goodreads in exchange for an honest review.
Willie Black is the old school reporter. He is investigating a serial killer . Black is tough & hard boiled investigative reporter but he is also a father & a grandfather. I loved Willie! He's the reporter who digs for the story no matter who it offends no matter what it takes he is determined to get the story, the honest and truthful story no matter what.
Mr Owen has come up with a character that really grows on you and I can't wait to find more Willie Black books.
I recieved this book free from goodreads in exchange for an honest review.
September 20, 2017
Willie Black is a hard-living journalist. When his office is held hostage by the uncle of a murdered child Willie finds himself in the middle of a case. This is the 5th book in a series, but it is the first one I have read. While occasionally I felt like I missing parts of the story, in general, I didn't find that it was hard to figure out what had happened in the past. The author does a good job at letting us new readers know what had happened in the past.
I won this book in a Goodreads' giveaway, but the opinions are all my own.
I won this book in a Goodreads' giveaway, but the opinions are all my own.
January 17, 2023
Howard Owen was a Richmond reporter and his descriptions of Richmond locales and community ring true. This mystery is sometimes hard to follow if you haven't read earlier books in the series.It is satisfying and a quick read.
November 25, 2024
Good novel! I enjoy Owen’s Willie Black series. I liked the plot of this installment but Owen really did beat to death the concepts of dying print journalism and Willie’s personal fecklessness. I look forward to the next one!
May 15, 2022
One of his best in the Willie Black series, in my opinion.
May 24, 2018
This story revolves around Richmond, VA. It was really fun to read a book with a setting in the area where we have lived for the past 30 years. This book is actually 5th in the series, and even though I haven't read any of his other books, the author made it easy to pick right up with the characters without any trouble.
The writing, storyline and characters are solid...typical crime novel, but I could have done with less cursing. I understand the author is trying to be authentic and that police and newspaper reporters don't say, "Golly gee!" when they are facing a criminal, but still I found the foul language overdone. There are plenty of books in the same genre that manage to weave a great, believable story without an excessive amount of cursing, so it can be done. This was just really overdone and detracted from the story and characters.
Rating- 3.5 stars, would probably have been 4 stars if not for all the profanity.
The writing, storyline and characters are solid...typical crime novel, but I could have done with less cursing. I understand the author is trying to be authentic and that police and newspaper reporters don't say, "Golly gee!" when they are facing a criminal, but still I found the foul language overdone. There are plenty of books in the same genre that manage to weave a great, believable story without an excessive amount of cursing, so it can be done. This was just really overdone and detracted from the story and characters.
Rating- 3.5 stars, would probably have been 4 stars if not for all the profanity.
October 2, 2016
This is the first book I've read by this Author and it was very good. The mystery/thriller kept me interested from word one. It does a great job of taking the reader to the tough part of Richmond, with its cast of unusual characters.
February 26, 2017
I enjoyed Mr. Owen's humorous style of writing. The characters were unique and likable. The plot though kind of depressing was well thought out. A definite page turner. I would highly recommend this book to any of my friends who like mystery. I did win this through a goodreads giveaway, but would have bought it, definitely a good read!
February 23, 2017
Grace is the 5th "Willie Black" novel by Richmond's Howard Owen. Owen is at the top of his game; I think it's the best in the mystery series. Winner of the 2012 Hammett Prize for Oregon Hill, the New York Times says Howard Owen is "a writer we can't wait to hear again." I agree.
October 20, 2016
Loved this book! The story line kept me intrigued and turning pages. The ending was shocking as well. I am know a fan of the Willie Black series and will read the others!
I won this book for free on the Good reads giveaways.
I won this book for free on the Good reads giveaways.
April 1, 2017
I am really liking this series.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews