Larry Bassett’s Reviews > Blacklist > Status Update

She caught the bitterness in my tone. “Don’t make that the only way you think of us, Victoria. We do some good as well. Without us, there wouldn’t be money for symphonies and theaters, after all.”

I thought of my mother’s words on the worries of grand ladies. I was glad of the poverty I’d grown up in, glad of having to earn every dime I’d ever spent. You pay a high price for money, too high a price.

I didn’t have evidence, the nagger said, only the connections that came from reading archives and listening to people; I didn’t have hard evidence. I fought the notion that Bobby would flat out refuse to investigate that New Solway crowd.

This is the post 9/11 book in the series. It has a teenage Arabic boy branded as a terrorist to complement the timing.

The patriot act passed after 9/11 came in for a good deal of disparagement by our detective friend as the FBI pressed her for the location of a teenage terrorist.

Another “side” issue that is dealt with in this book is the status of Arabs in the US in this time just immediately after September 11. VI gets involved with a teenage Arab who has been labeled a terrorist and she confronts the issue with her good friend Lottie, who is Jewish.

One of the things I like about the books by this author is that they deal with some recollections and insights into progressive issues. In this book one of the issues touched up on is the HUAC hearings, dealing with some of the personalities who were involved.

Because of the dead black man that VI found in a pool in a rich suburb of Chicago, the book takes a fascinating detour into some of the black history of theater in Chicago.

Reference to anthrax letters, reminded me of something that I hadn’t thought of in a while.

This book number 11 begins just after September 11 and the twin towers event. VI is reflecting on that event and what has happened since then that has an impact on her life, even though she is in another city.