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The Big MangoBy Norman Kelley Fiction | Trade paperback
"Want a scathing social and political satire? Look no further than Kelley's second effort featuring 'bad girl' African-American PI and part-time intellectual Nina Halligan--it's X-rated, but a romp of a read . . . Nina's acid takes on recognizable public figures and institutions both amuse and offend . . . Kelley spares no one, blacks and whites alike, and this provocative novel is sure to attract attention . . . " -Publishers Weekly SHE'S BACK! NINA HALLIGAN, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR The tropical island-nation of Misericordia is a social and political powder keg, a volcano of pent-up human suffering and rage on the verge of eruption. Founded in the 17th century as a refuge for runaway slaves, "the land of mercy" has since been tyrannized by one vicious, self-serving political despot after another. A recent popular uprising, led by liberation theologian and local folk hero, Father Pierre-Pierre Bernard, provided the island's poor mulatto masses with a rare moment of freedom and self-rule. But Father Bernard, for all his passion as a preacher and social insurrectionist, proved singularly ill equipped to lead the country as president. Less skilled in making decisions than in weighing, and continually re-weighing, the merits of each position, "the Hamlet of the Caribbean" cowered in the face of the harsh, day-to-day realities of political life on the island and was soon deposed to exile in the U.S. by a right-wing military coup. Enter Nina Halligan, the headstrong, street-savvy protagonist of Norman Kelley's new political thriller, The Big Mango, the second installment of a series of novels about Ms. Halligan's life and adventures. A former Brooklyn assistant district attorney, Nina divides her time between her responsibilities as a left-wing political science instructor in a Brooklyn community college and her occasional work as a private investigator. An activist in the African-American community in New York, the woman has a nose for scandal and corruption, as well as a troubled history of dragging the people she loves into danger. (The first installment in the Nina Halligan series, Black Heat, was published to great critical acclaim by Cool Grove Press in 1997, and will be reissued by HarperCollins in 2001). As the novel opens, Nina is reluctantly persuaded by her politically opportunistic sister-in-law, Miriam, to travel to Washington, D.C., where Father Bernard is considering a deal that would return him to power. With the brutal murder and public defamation of her close friend, Michael Debord, an insider in the administration of U.S. President Jeffrey Benton, Ninašs investigation suddenly takes a personal turn, as she heads south to find Michaelšs killer and return Bernard to power. The real fireworks begin the moment Nina arrives in Misericordia, where she and her sidekick Anna, a recently jilted lesbian art dealer in search of tropical diversions, narrowly escape a violent kidnapping attempt at the airport. After a lustful rendezvous with her former lover, Luc Malmundo, Nina soon learns that the real threat to the islandšs security are her old nemesis, Oscar Peltrano (a.k.a. Nate Ford), and a vicious team of corporate mercenaries. As the novel progresses and the body count increases, Nina manages to enlist the assistance of a motley crew of political subversives, including a voluptuous local nightclub diva named La Bomba, and Esperanza, a gregarious innkeeper with "a little something extra." As things begin to fall apart around her, Nina learns that all roads on the island lead to a remote rural plateau outside the capitol where a rare, indigenous tropical plant has peaked the interest of both Washington and a powerful multi-national pharmaceutical corporation called EarthChem. As the novel spins toward its explosive conclusion, Nina and her new friends wage a bloody--and costly--war against Peltrano and his henchmen to avenge their loss and return the island to its people. NORMAN KELLEY is a freelance journalist, author, ex-intellectual, and producer at WBAI 99.5 FM Pacifica Radio, where he produces art-related segments for "City in Exile." He has written for the Black Star News, New Politics, Black Renaissance/Noir, The Bedford Stuyvesant Current, and Word.com, and has also written op-ed pieces for Newsday. He is the author of the political mystery, Black Heat (Cool Grove Press, 1997; to be reissued by HarperCollins), the first in the Nina Halligan series. Mr. Kelley will be a contributing writer to Gig (Random House, 2000). Since 1998, Mr. Kelley has been producing arts-related segments for "City in Exile" on WBAI. He has covered such issues as publishing, the development of electronic books, copyrights, and the new media, and has interviewed authors, initiated artist-to-artist interviews, and conceived and produced a series called "The NYPD Project," a history of the New York Police Department. The idea for the series orginated from an article he wrote for the Black Star News in the aftermath of the Abner Louima case. Mr. Kelley also served as an interim associate producer for Pacifica's "Democracy Now!" Read Mr. Kelley's article regarding the political economy of black music, From Left Field. On sale now for only $10 (including shipping!): Limited first edition copies of Black Heat, Kelley's first novel in the Nina Halligan Series. |
