Toast Before Dying

Murder casts a shadow over the soul of Harlem....

When she''s not studying for her master''s or dropping in on her father''s jazz gigs, ex-cop Mali Anderson checks out the scene at Harlem''s smoky Half-Moon Bar.  She wasn''t there for singer-bartender Thea Morris''s birthday party, but someone else was--someone who shot Thea to death outside in the alley.  Was it her boyfriend, now sitting in jail on suspicion of murder? His sister insists he''s innocent--and wants her friend Mali to clear his name.

Thea herself is a mystery: a lonely beauty in an apartment too deluxe for a woman living on tip money, with a gamut of lovers from an aspiring actor to an ambitious politician.  It will take all Mali''s savvy--and sources from street-corner buzz to uptown cocktail chat--to unravel Thea''s life and death.  And it will take her every survival instinct to catch a killer who will kill again to keep a deadly secret.

From the Paperback edition.