Redlined, A Novel of Boston

by Richard W Wise

Overview

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 might have.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780972822336
Publisher:	Brunswick House Press
Publication date:	06/10/2020
Pages:	338
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.76(d)

About the Author

Richard Wise is the author of three books. His latest novel, REDLINED, a mystery thriller with a literary twist is set in Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood is available in paperback, e.book and on Audible. REDLINED was nominated for the National Book Award. Play the book's trailer at the bottom of the author's Amazon page.

The author's first book: SECRETS OF THE GEM TRADE, THE CONNOISSEUR'S GUIDE TO PRECIOUS GEMSTONES was originally published in 2001, the second edition appeared in 2016. Extensively revised and rewritten, the 2nd edition has added 127 pages, 11 new chapters, 5 new introductory essays and 161 additional photographs.

Mr. Wise's second book,THE FRENCH BLUE, a historical novel published in 2010 was the winner of a 2011 International Book Award in Historical Fiction. The novel is set in the 17th Century gem trade. Called "a fine piece of historical fiction" in a 5 star review by Midwest Book Review, THE FRENCH BLUE tells the back story of the Hope Diamond and the true life adventures of 17th Century gem merchant Jean-Baptiste Tavernier.

Richard Wise has enjoyed a diverse career. He is a veteran of the U. S. Coast Guard. After receiving his B.A., teaching and doing graduate work at the University of Rhode Island, he spent most of the decade of the 70s as a professional community organizer. Wise headed organizing projects in Massachusetts and Rhode island. In the late 1970s he left organizing and apprenticed as a goldsmith. He studied gemology at the Gemological Institute of American and received his Graduate Gemologist diploma in 1985. He founded his retail company R. W. Wise, Goldsmiths, Inc. in the early 1980s and began traveling internationally, buying gems and writing about them in 1986.

Mr. Wise's articles have appeared in Gems & Gemology, Lapidary Journal, JQ and Colored Stone. He is a former Gemology Columnist for National Jeweler and Contributing Editor at Gem Market News. The author retired from retail in 2012 to pursue his writing. Currently, he writes a book review column for Gemmology Today Magazine. He lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Editorial Reviews

"Redlined: A Novel of Boston would be a great addition to the summer reading list...It is an informative but exciting whodunit thriller that tells a compelling story of how a small group of Jamaica Plain residents...pioneered anti-redlining policies that stabilized their neighborhood, and...transformed Jamaica Plain into one of Boston' premier, and increasingly exclusive, neighborhoods." Kenneth Reardon--Shelterforce Magazine.

Redlined by Richard W. Wise is a gripping suspense thriller that approaches its subject on many levels, city politics, big money power brokers, banks, cultural institutions such as the Catholic Church in an old Boston neighborhood, and most importantly, what happens on the human level of family, friends and neighbors trying to protect their dreams...Redlinedmaintains an edge of realism that will keep you guessing until the very end..." Colin Harrington, The Berkshire Eagle

"Idealism meets harsh reality on the streets of Boston in Richard Wise's well observed novel Redlined. Activists, crooked developers and politicians clash in a battle for the face of a city...an evocative and provocative read." Edward J. Delaney; Author: Broken Irish

"An original and simply riveting novel by an author with an impressive narrative storytelling style, "Redlined" by Richard W. Wise will prove to be an immediate and enduringly popular addition to community library General Fiction collections. The kind of novel that movies are made out of.

At first, Redlined reads with the setup and motivation of a murder mystery. Readers are in for a bigger treat, however, because Richard W. Wise incorporates real, contemporary social issues and tensions into this story, along with a special dynamic between the investigators, which elevates his read beyond a typical whodunit.

While investigative mystery readers will be the likely audience of Redlined, the story will especially appeal to women who like their characters strong and purposeful. Another audience will be readers familiar with Boston's cultural milieu, who will find Redlined an absorbing series of conundrums that lead ever deeper into the heart of a community's manipulations, politics, and social interactions. Highly recommended." Midwest Book Review

From the Publisher