Tananarive Due The Between

The Between

Tananarive Due

Harper Torch, Sep 2005, $6.99, 289 pp.

ISBN: 0060819847

Three decades ago his grandmother died saving then almost ten years old African-American Hilton James from drowning. Over the years Hilton became a social worker in Miami and married a woman who has since become the first African-American to sit on the Miami bench; they have two intelligent children. The James family seems to have everything going for them.

However, as he nears his fortieth birthday, Hilton begins to suffer nightmares involving his grandmother's sacrifice. He ponders whether he was supposed to have died on that day thirty years ago. At the same time his wife receives hate mail threatening her children, her home and her husband from a felon she through the book at. Hilton personalizes the threat so he turns to a therapist for help to insure he will not freeze if the menace turns real.

This great suspense thriller effortlessly combines supernatural elements with a strong mystery that totally enthralls the audience wondering what happens next. The two subplots tie together through the besieged Hilton who worries about the safety of his wife and children from a nasty racist while also wondering if the Grim reaper is reaching from the other side to rectify a mistake caused when his grand ma saved his life. Fans will ponder along side of the everyman middle class hero who willingly would cross if it kept his beloved family from harm; however, he knows the threat to them is mortal unlike the perceived menace so he must remain in Florida even if it means battling Lucifer to do so. This is one author whose time for success is Due now.

Harriet Klausner