Blog Tour Review: Redlined

Book Details:

Book Title:  Redlined: A Novel of Boston by Richard W. Wise

Category: Adult Fiction (18 +),  (9 Hours 59 Minutes)

Genre: Thriller

Publisher:  Brunswick House Press

Release date:   May 2020

Content Rating:  PG-13 + M. cursing throughout and violence (murder)

Amazon | Audible Apple | Indiebound | Goodreads | BookBub 

Book Description:

The year is 1974. Boston’s Jamaica Plain is a neighborhood under siege, a community skating along the razor’s edge of decline. The banks have REDLINED Jamaica Plain, causing the housing market to crash, wiping out local homeowner’s lifetime investments and opening the neighborhood to blockbusters and slumlords. Now, someone has begun systematically torching those abandoned buildings and the charred body of Sandy Morgan, a dedicated young neighborhood

organizer, has been found among the ashes. Why? Who stands to gain?

Community organizer and Marine combat veteran, Jedidiah Flynt and Alex Jordan, his beautiful Harvard educated researcher together with a group of local property owners are determined to stop the redlining and and bring the arsonists responsible for Sandy Morgan’s death to justice. Their search will lead them through a labyrinth of corrupt politicians, Asian gangsters and bent churchmen.

Two interwoven plots work their way through the narrative, one is

absolutely true, the other never happened, but very well might have.

My Review:

What a great story.  At the top of the book, I was a little concerned the book was going to be political and preachy, but I couldn’t have been more wrong.  Somewhat of an unconventional thriller in that it highlights the issue of redlining and was a learning moment for me.  I knew very little about what redlining is and was intrigued at the details involved. 

The book moves at a good pace, is suspenseful and well thought out. This book kept me on my toes.  After the first 10%, I was never sure where it was headed.  I liked Jedidiah although he is a little sexist, but maybe that’s to be expected from a 70s setting. 

Told from the view of the activists, investigators and those pulling the strings, you get a broad base of what is happening.  

The audiobook is narrated by Bobby Gablini.  He is a new to me narrator, but I enjoyed listening to his take.  He swept me into the story and did a great job of moving from character to character.

I’d recommend this book, especially the audio version, for thriller lovers out there wishing to learn a little more about redlining.

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