Red Was the Midnight, is a riveting novel that intertwines the imaginative story of a striving “colored” family—three sisters and a brother—with an account of an actual race riot that roiled Atlanta for four days in September, 1906. In this page-turner, the author pulls you into the ambitions of Beatrice, the haughty eldest daughter; the adulterous affairs of Fat, the family’s only son and a church deacon, who runs a thriving numbers and bootlegging racket; the return of their sister Mary Alice, after a mysterious seven-year absence; and the dilemma facing “Fast Ruby,” their youngest and prettiest sister, whose newborn daughter’s milky complexion is shocking. As the family tries to cope with secrets, betrayals, sibling rivalry, and a host of other conflicts, the race riot—fueled by a contentious political campaign and hysterical, questionable newspaper headlines—throws them into a fight for their lives. Historical fiction, with a title taken from a poem, “Litany of Atlanta”, by W. E. B. Du Bois, Red Was the Midnight follows events from a hundred years ago that eerily foreshadow those of today.

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