“Title: The Mayor’s Wife Wore Sapphires
Author: Martha Tucker
Publisher: Urban Classic Books, 2006
Pneuma Entertainment, LLC, an imprint
Reviewed by: Idrissa Uqdah
This novel by first time author, Martha (Marti) Tucker is indeed an Urban Classic. The Mayor’s Wife Wore Sapphires is the story of Indigo Tate, wife of Compton’s beloved Mayor Melville Tate. Mayor Tate is the man that plans to take Compton to the next level by building hope in a community that has been destroyed by drugs, gang murders and poverty. His incubator concept of healing urban woes has given the city a new beginning and hope for a future for the many young African Americans now mired in the muck of dirty politics and greedy leadership. His beautiful wife Indigo, a poor girl from Gary, Indiana who seeks to escape the ghetto of Compton works by his side hoping that a bid for a Congressional seat will take them to Washington to live among the beautiful people.
But standing in the way of this move is the Mayor’s discovery that something is very rotten in his city and that millions of dollars earmarked for this transformation is missing. He decides that he cannot make the Congressional run; much to his wife’s horror and he decides to stay in Compton and find out where the missing millions went and to see his project through.
Just as he is about to make a public announcement; he is assassinated by his detractors. Indigo is also wounded but survives to find herself a widow in the midst of a conspiracy to blame her husband’s murder on a young gang member who is set-up to take the fall. Indigo remembers her husband’s dying request, that she see this thing through to the end so she puts herself in harm’s way in an effort to find the true murderer by running for Mayor of Compton.
This is when the action begins. This murder mystery combines political drama and intrigue with the social ills of urban America. There is even a romantic twist in this mix. A full cast of characters that Tucker has deftly developed gives the reader a very entertaining novel that is both suspenseful and true to life. The storyline is very complicated and the reader is challenged to give attention to detail. The behind the scenes ins and outs of municipal government, the struggle for power and money, and myriad of personalities creates a fast-paced thriller that keeps the reader guessing from one chapter to another.
Martha Tucker has penned a novel that should stand the test of time in the tradition of African American writers who write stories of substance and truth. I’d rate The Mayor’s Wife Wore Sapphires a five star read as this reviewer was thoroughly entertained.
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newimagegirl wrote this review Saturday, September 1 2007.
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