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Charlotte Justice #1
Inner City Blues
As an African-American woman in the predominantly white-male LAPD, homicide detective Charlotte Justice knows about heat. But now, thanks to twelve decent, pro-police jurors in Simi Valley, Los Angeles is a city rife with fires and riots. Forty-eight hours into the maelstrom, a prominent black doctor is mistaken for a car thief. Justice quickly defuses the violent confrontation, saving Dr. Lance Mitchell from a potentially savage beating by L.A.'s finest. But that's just the corner of a more ominous picture.
For the body of "Cinque" Lewis is found nearby with the good doctor's wallet beneath it. A one-time radical, Lewis murdered Justice's husband and baby girl in a hail of bullets thirteen years ago, then dropped out of sight. Navigating a terrain riddled with emotional land mines, defying the staunch LAPD hierarchy, Justice now sets out to uncover the shady truth connecting Mitchell and Lewis--but by reliving the tragic past, she may be forced to repeat it. . . .
From the Trade Paperback edition.
For the body of "Cinque" Lewis is found nearby with the good doctor's wallet beneath it. A one-time radical, Lewis murdered Justice's husband and baby girl in a hail of bullets thirteen years ago, then dropped out of sight. Navigating a terrain riddled with emotional land mines, defying the staunch LAPD hierarchy, Justice now sets out to uncover the shady truth connecting Mitchell and Lewis--but by reliving the tragic past, she may be forced to repeat it. . . .
From the Trade Paperback edition.
336 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
25 people are currently reading
579 people want to read
About the author
Paula L. Woods
16 books33 followersPaula is a member of Mystery Writers of America, the International Association of Crime Writers, and Sisters in Crime. She has also served as an Edgar judge, on the Author Committee of the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books and speaker at the festival.
A native of Los Angeles, Paula's lifelong love of books has resulted in the growth of her personal library to over 1,000 volumes.
Series:
* Charlotte Justice Mystery
A native of Los Angeles, Paula's lifelong love of books has resulted in the growth of her personal library to over 1,000 volumes.
Series:
* Charlotte Justice Mystery
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
June 27, 2021
As research for a novel I'm writing, I'm reading detective fiction and stealing everything with street value. My story takes place in L.A. of the early '90s, but I'm flying all over the map with a diversity of authors and time periods. Next up is my introduction to the fiction of Paula L. Woods with her 1999 debut Inner City Blues, which introduces LAPD detective Charlotte Justice in the first in a series of four. I have a few pet reasons I'll discuss for not giving up on a novel that's both too much and not enough, but by 25%, I'd gotten off the bus, skimming to the end.
The story is the first-person account of Charlotte Justice, thirteen-year LAPD veteran who as a detective in South Bureau Homicide has investigated more murders in five years than most detectives do in a career. We're introduced to her in April 1992 in uniform as the biggest American civil insurrection of the century engulfs L.A.. Justice and a crew of cops are on a bus en route to a strip mall in South L.A. when they spot a black man in hospital scrubs appearing to break into a car. The bus pulls over and Justice intervenes to stop some of her peers from instigating another Rodney King beating. She dislocates her shoulder in the process.
Justice and her partner remove the doctor from the scene and go to his hospital to treat her injury. Justice's brother, an ex-cop who became an attorney to fight the LAPD, meets her there and they're reunited with a childhood friend, a hospital administrator who has Justice swooning with his GQ centerfold style. News soon reaches them that a dead body has been found near the scene where they found the doctor acting suspiciously with the doctor's wallet on him. The dead body is none other than the fugitive suspected in murdering Justice's husband and daughter years ago.
I'll start with the good. Woods employs chapter titles, which few authors do and I always appreciate. Charlotte Justice? Get the fuck outta here with that family name, but okay, I was ready to go with the flow from the verve of Woods' first paragraph:
Twelve years, eleven months, and fifteen days into living out my Top Cop fantasies--Christie Love with a better hairdo--my Nubian brothers down on Florence and Normandie had to go and pitch a serious bitch and mess up my cha-cha. Since May of '79, I had survived my years with the LAPD with little more than a few bruises, a shoulder prone to dislocation, and a couple of badly torn fingernails.
Not great, but there's a lot of ingredients in that gumbo. The opening scene is immersive, as Woods, who clearly knows L.A.-its geography, racial history and its police force--places the reader in the L.A. Riots.
As the novel introduces a crime and needed to show Charlotte Justice becoming obsessed with solving it, the book fails in three areas. If three engines fail on a 747, the plane can stay in the air and land. But if you're headed to Pismo Beach and make three wrong turns with no course correction, you end up in the Mojave Desert, 350 miles from where anyone wants to be. That's Inner City Blues. 350 miles from where I wanted to be.
The first wrong turn comes with the number of characters. There are way, way, way, way too many. There's Charlotte Justice. There's her partner. We have a racist, sexist co-worker. We have a suspect-type character. We have Justice's brother. We have her childhood heartthrob. We have a nosy neighbor. We have her lieutenant. There's a co-worker making unwanted sexual advances toward Justice. There's her dog. There's her deceased husband and daughter. There's the man who shot them. There are other LAPD detectives ...
My understanding is that Woods generated her novel by first writing about the Justice family, the family of a black female cop. But "writing" and "story" aren't the same thing. What story there is here is out of focus, like someone recording video at a party and whipping the camera around from person to person to person.
The next wrong turn is the mystery. Our victim is the killer of Justice's husband and kid. In other words, the most compelling character in the book is killed off page. Witnessing your family gunned down would be horrifying. That seems like a much more powerful opening than a novel that begins by focusing on the geography and history of L.A. I feel for one, feel much less for the other. Focusing on this violent act and how it impacted Charlotte Justice, how it set her off on her journey, that's a better story. Woods came up with it, had it, then lost it and her novel unravels as a result.
Another problem I had with Inner City Blues is Charlotte Justice. Raised in a Buppie household--where status, education and the example you set is everything--Charlotte is also surrounded by those expectations as a grown woman. Family is all over the place. This makes for a very proper main character who doesn't curse, drink, smoke, gamble, have promiscuous sex, issue strong opinions, eat ice cream out of the bucket or do anything that would make her interesting. True, Hercule Poirot doesn't curse like a trucker and Miss Marple doesn't smoke weed. What Agatha Christie does is confront them with a compelling mystery.
We have the centerpiece of many mysteries--a murder victim--but Justice isn't really investigating his death due to the fact that he killed her family and there exists a conflict of interest. We have a detective, but with her arm in a sling with a dislocated shoulder, she's limited in what she can do physically. Justice talks to people and goes a few places, but nothing much seems to happen to her. She's an uncompelling character talking to vast numbers of uninteresting people about an event or events that didn't mean much to me.
The story is the first-person account of Charlotte Justice, thirteen-year LAPD veteran who as a detective in South Bureau Homicide has investigated more murders in five years than most detectives do in a career. We're introduced to her in April 1992 in uniform as the biggest American civil insurrection of the century engulfs L.A.. Justice and a crew of cops are on a bus en route to a strip mall in South L.A. when they spot a black man in hospital scrubs appearing to break into a car. The bus pulls over and Justice intervenes to stop some of her peers from instigating another Rodney King beating. She dislocates her shoulder in the process.
Justice and her partner remove the doctor from the scene and go to his hospital to treat her injury. Justice's brother, an ex-cop who became an attorney to fight the LAPD, meets her there and they're reunited with a childhood friend, a hospital administrator who has Justice swooning with his GQ centerfold style. News soon reaches them that a dead body has been found near the scene where they found the doctor acting suspiciously with the doctor's wallet on him. The dead body is none other than the fugitive suspected in murdering Justice's husband and daughter years ago.
I'll start with the good. Woods employs chapter titles, which few authors do and I always appreciate. Charlotte Justice? Get the fuck outta here with that family name, but okay, I was ready to go with the flow from the verve of Woods' first paragraph:
Twelve years, eleven months, and fifteen days into living out my Top Cop fantasies--Christie Love with a better hairdo--my Nubian brothers down on Florence and Normandie had to go and pitch a serious bitch and mess up my cha-cha. Since May of '79, I had survived my years with the LAPD with little more than a few bruises, a shoulder prone to dislocation, and a couple of badly torn fingernails.
Not great, but there's a lot of ingredients in that gumbo. The opening scene is immersive, as Woods, who clearly knows L.A.-its geography, racial history and its police force--places the reader in the L.A. Riots.
As the novel introduces a crime and needed to show Charlotte Justice becoming obsessed with solving it, the book fails in three areas. If three engines fail on a 747, the plane can stay in the air and land. But if you're headed to Pismo Beach and make three wrong turns with no course correction, you end up in the Mojave Desert, 350 miles from where anyone wants to be. That's Inner City Blues. 350 miles from where I wanted to be.
The first wrong turn comes with the number of characters. There are way, way, way, way too many. There's Charlotte Justice. There's her partner. We have a racist, sexist co-worker. We have a suspect-type character. We have Justice's brother. We have her childhood heartthrob. We have a nosy neighbor. We have her lieutenant. There's a co-worker making unwanted sexual advances toward Justice. There's her dog. There's her deceased husband and daughter. There's the man who shot them. There are other LAPD detectives ...
My understanding is that Woods generated her novel by first writing about the Justice family, the family of a black female cop. But "writing" and "story" aren't the same thing. What story there is here is out of focus, like someone recording video at a party and whipping the camera around from person to person to person.
The next wrong turn is the mystery. Our victim is the killer of Justice's husband and kid. In other words, the most compelling character in the book is killed off page. Witnessing your family gunned down would be horrifying. That seems like a much more powerful opening than a novel that begins by focusing on the geography and history of L.A. I feel for one, feel much less for the other. Focusing on this violent act and how it impacted Charlotte Justice, how it set her off on her journey, that's a better story. Woods came up with it, had it, then lost it and her novel unravels as a result.
Another problem I had with Inner City Blues is Charlotte Justice. Raised in a Buppie household--where status, education and the example you set is everything--Charlotte is also surrounded by those expectations as a grown woman. Family is all over the place. This makes for a very proper main character who doesn't curse, drink, smoke, gamble, have promiscuous sex, issue strong opinions, eat ice cream out of the bucket or do anything that would make her interesting. True, Hercule Poirot doesn't curse like a trucker and Miss Marple doesn't smoke weed. What Agatha Christie does is confront them with a compelling mystery.
We have the centerpiece of many mysteries--a murder victim--but Justice isn't really investigating his death due to the fact that he killed her family and there exists a conflict of interest. We have a detective, but with her arm in a sling with a dislocated shoulder, she's limited in what she can do physically. Justice talks to people and goes a few places, but nothing much seems to happen to her. She's an uncompelling character talking to vast numbers of uninteresting people about an event or events that didn't mean much to me.
January 12, 2020
On July 14, 2011, I attended an ALOUD program at the Los Angeles Central Library, L.A. Crime Writers: "We Murder so You Don't Have To". Paula L. Woods hosted Gar Anthony Haywood, Mark Haskell Smith, and Naomi Hirahara (you can listen to the archived podcast at https://www.lapl.org/collections-reso...). It was my intention to read a sampling of all of the authors' works and...years later, I've finally done so. I just finished Inner City Blues and, frankly, regret that I didn't do so sooner. Charlotte Justice is a character that I thoroughly enjoyed reading about and I plan to read the rest of Paula L. Woods' Charlotte Justice series. The book was fast-paced, realistic in its portrayal of police procedure, and set amongst the backdrop of the Los Angeles Riots of 1992, an element that added immensely to this particular story. I highly recommend this book!
June 15, 2013
A few books back I read When Death Comes Stealing by Valerie Wilson Wesley and when I began reading this title by Paula L. Woods, there were enough similarities that I feared it was going to be a rehash of the same plot- black female cop tires of racist sexist society and becomes a PI, then deals with stuff in her family. Boy was I wrong.
What is remarkable and notable about this novel is that the main character, Charlotte Justice, stays a detective and though she bears and acknowledges all the problems that come with the LAPD, she is still proud to be a detective. Justice feels like a completely new character with a different set of issues than other mystery detectives I have read. Though she looks at social problems, it does not take up the majority of the book either. Her life and society's ills are intertwined within the story, never making me wish for more of one or the other. Throughout the tale I was left guessing and intrigued as the saga unfolded. I also found myself wishing I had a dog like Beast.
If you like black female detectives or a good mystery or even a good saga, this has to be probably the best executed black female detective mystery that I have read. It's an intriguing and action backed mystery that I think any mystery fan would enjoy with enough twists and interesting characters to keep us guessing.
What is remarkable and notable about this novel is that the main character, Charlotte Justice, stays a detective and though she bears and acknowledges all the problems that come with the LAPD, she is still proud to be a detective. Justice feels like a completely new character with a different set of issues than other mystery detectives I have read. Though she looks at social problems, it does not take up the majority of the book either. Her life and society's ills are intertwined within the story, never making me wish for more of one or the other. Throughout the tale I was left guessing and intrigued as the saga unfolded. I also found myself wishing I had a dog like Beast.
If you like black female detectives or a good mystery or even a good saga, this has to be probably the best executed black female detective mystery that I have read. It's an intriguing and action backed mystery that I think any mystery fan would enjoy with enough twists and interesting characters to keep us guessing.
April 29, 2020
Inner City Blues is a book of love, loss, grief, anger, and growth, all wrapped in the packaging of a crime-mystery novel.
I liked this book throughout. It was good, if not a little dull at times. But the last few pages? Made me bawl my eyes out. And that’s why this book is getting 5 stars from me.
As Charlotte always says, don’t judge a book by its cover.
I liked this book throughout. It was good, if not a little dull at times. But the last few pages? Made me bawl my eyes out. And that’s why this book is getting 5 stars from me.
As Charlotte always says, don’t judge a book by its cover.
June 30, 2012
I pulled this book from my stack of books to read and started reading on June 16, 2012. Little did I know how this selection would affect me during the week I read the book. I have to say that I savored the book because I lived through much of the history provided in this book and I minored in the history of ethnic minorities in college. This book is set in Los Angeles at the time of the Rodney King riots. The death of Rodney King on June 17, 2012 took me back in time to the LA riots which took place after the LAPD officers were found not guilty in the beating of Rodney King. I took a great deal of time to read this book. For younger readers, the read may not impact them as strongly if they didn't live in this era of riots from Watts to Kent State to Rodney King. This was a great read for me. I spent as much time in reflection as I did in reading this book. This was a wonderful debut for Paula L. Woods.
December 18, 2013
Interesting look at Los Angeles in 1992. Page 194: before the Watts riots, McDonnell Douglas aircraft mechanics (lived there). At the time of the riots McDonnell was located in St. Louis, Missouri and the merger with Douglas was in the future. I knew several Autonetics workers that lived in Watts and North America Aircraft was also in Downey not to far from Watts.
One other mention and I can't seem to find the page is about Baldwin Hills and Lucky Baldwin being the developer that developed the area. Baldwin died long before that area was developed and when it was developed his family no longer owned it. Lucky was a Land Baron that owned the Rancho La Cienega and used it as a sheep ranch.
Page 194: Give the author extra points for mentioning Buick deuce and a quarters then take off the points for "quarters" The Electra 225 has only one 25 and is often called "nines" in black neighborhoods.
One other mention and I can't seem to find the page is about Baldwin Hills and Lucky Baldwin being the developer that developed the area. Baldwin died long before that area was developed and when it was developed his family no longer owned it. Lucky was a Land Baron that owned the Rancho La Cienega and used it as a sheep ranch.
Page 194: Give the author extra points for mentioning Buick deuce and a quarters then take off the points for "quarters" The Electra 225 has only one 25 and is often called "nines" in black neighborhoods.
May 14, 2019
The first third or so was really exposition heavy, but once it got going I really enjoyed it a lot. Hopefully the other books in the series will be go a little easier on the exposition now that the character's established.
April 17, 2020
This book covers LA after the riots. It provided a very different perspective on how a black female police detective views the immediate aftermath as she works on a murder investigation with very personal ties to her.
Want to read
February 8, 2020Synopsis: during the LA riots, black female Detective Charlotte Justice rescues a curfew-breaking black doctor only to discover a body nearby.
October 29, 2021
Taking place in LA, this is a beautiful set piece about a Black female cop, Charlotte Justice, from a well-educated, wealthy family, which somewhat looks down on her career as a crack homicide detective. She is tough, smart and been through her share of trauma, giving her some empathy for others, and a drive toward setting things right. One of the joys of this book is Woods’ deep knowledge of black culture in Los Angeles, encompassing many neighborhoods, describing them and their inhabitants in colorful detail. I especially enjoyed the mention of so many Black LA artists, from Sanford Biggers to Bette Saar, a great blend of truth with otherwise fictional events. This being the first in a series, I’m looking forward to more, hoping that just reading these will be as enjoyable as listening to this one on tape was.
December 18, 2021
This book doesn't work that well as a mystery -- the resolution comes out of nowhere -- but I really enjoyed it as an LA novel. Writing in the late '90s, Paula Woods homes in on LA's Black upper middle class around the time of the Rodney King uprisings, setting the plot around Baldwin Hills and other neighborhoods of westside South Central. Woods is especially interested in the role of a Black cop within a community that doesn't think justice comes from cops, as well as how policing as a profession is seen in Black upper-middle-class culture. I think she falls short of any astute insights that feel relevant today, but maybe she picks up that thread to greater results in the subsequent Detective Charlotte Justice books.
Charlotte Justice is a forebear to Rachel Howzell Hall's Detective Elouise Norton. If you enjoy this book, I recommend hers.
Charlotte Justice is a forebear to Rachel Howzell Hall's Detective Elouise Norton. If you enjoy this book, I recommend hers.
January 22, 2018
Very interesting story but something about the writing was clunky at times.
June 6, 2019
Kind of slow at times but had a good unexpected ending. Showed the corruption in the LAPD and some good LA history!
July 30, 2019
Interesting read. It gave me a peek inside a community that was all new to me.
Read
April 24, 2025dnf
December 5, 2025
Another one from the Time list. Can't say I enjoyed it that much but it had its moments.
March 26, 2013
DNF. I really wanted to like this book. I liked the premise, heroine, and concept of this book-- having an African American female detective was refreshing and seeing early days in LAPD of racism and sexism around the time of the Rodney King riots was a definite hook. But after reading half of this book, I just wasn't feeling engaged enough with the plot or characters. Simultaneously reading Karin Slaughter's *Criminal*-- also in part about early days for women in a racist, misogynist police force (this one the Atlanta PD of the 70's)--just emphasized even more what was not working in *Inner City Blues*. But perhaps it isn't fair to compare Woods' first novel with Slaughter's latest novel in a powerhouse series.
May 29, 2009
During the L. A. riots, Homicide Detective Charlotte Justice saves an African-American doctor from being harassed by racist cops. A body is later found near the scene and all evidence is pointing to the doctor Charlotte had saved. The corpse is always the man responsible for the brutal death of Detective Justice's husband and child several years before.
Paula L. Woods put together not only a solid mystery, but also of bigotry of race and gender on the Los Angeles police force. The author's honest depiction of tension between angry citizens and police officers during the riots felt real.
I will definitely pick up more of the Charlotte Justice series and I recommend you do too.
Paula L. Woods put together not only a solid mystery, but also of bigotry of race and gender on the Los Angeles police force. The author's honest depiction of tension between angry citizens and police officers during the riots felt real.
I will definitely pick up more of the Charlotte Justice series and I recommend you do too.
October 12, 2017
If you ad to sum up the main character in one word what would it be? Why?
If i had to sum up my main character Charlotte Justice in only on word, itn would probably be heroic because she always tries to do what is right along the whole story, like when they accused a doctor of car theft without proof and she tried to defend him.
If i had to sum up my main character Charlotte Justice in only on word, itn would probably be heroic because she always tries to do what is right along the whole story, like when they accused a doctor of car theft without proof and she tried to defend him.
July 10, 2011
Good story, good main character. A body, found during an LA "uprising", turns out to be that of the killer of LAPD detective Charlotte Justice's husband and baby daughter 12 years ago. I'd give it three and a half stars if I could.
July 6, 2025
A Joy to Read.
This is a well thought out novel with detail that brings the people and situations to life. I especially appreciated how the author provided an emotionally satisfying ending to the story.
This is a well thought out novel with detail that brings the people and situations to life. I especially appreciated how the author provided an emotionally satisfying ending to the story.
December 12, 2014
An exceptional first novel!
Want to read
December 3, 2013FIC WOO
February 17, 2016
read to page 56/too boiler plate/blasé writing style - not interesting enough to read to the end
Read
April 26, 2016Adult Fiction
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews