Ave Blue

Nothing in the background of Colin Taylor, a serious young black singer studying for a career in opera, could have prepared him for meeting and falling in love with Avà Blue, a street-smart single mother whose personal agenda includes revenge upon two notorious police detectives, tried-but exonerated-in the shooting death of AvÃ's older brother, Tamar, a suspected criminal. In Stephen Burrell's noir novel of inner-city Boston in 1971, incendiary relationships propel the action, and as the settings shift from bedroom to family room to courtroom, the denouement erupts in a cause cÃlèbre that shakes presumptions of guilt and innocence. A story of obsession, self-sacrifice, and ultimate redemption, this novel can speak to any reader imparting something significant and valuable.