Jeanette Michelle’s You Can’t Save Them All opens as Chicago attorney Ethel Reynolds is driving home. It has been a long day, she wants little more than just getting home to a quiet evening of visiting with her guardians, the 3 children of her sister, supper and no thought of the mass of work awaiting her tomorrow. As a member of the district attorney’s staff Ethel spends many hours working on cases.

It was a long drive home.

When Ethel’s colleague Lisa asks Ethel to look into a wrongful incarceration of a deaf white man down in Mississippi, Ethel’s life undergoes radical changes; the first entails a trip to the state Ethel despises.

Before long Ethel, Chicago detective Andre Kenner, Ethel’s friend Taylor, a woman with training and expertise working with the deaf as well as the deaf man’s brother and future sister in law find themselves caught up in a thorny –everyone knows, but no one talks- southern town situation. It is not an enviable place to be for the poor white family of Dowdy Dillard or the black Chicago contingent resolved to determine the guilt or innocence of Dowdy Dillard.

The reader begins a fast paced journey through a dangerous weave of long hidden secrets, gang rape of an underage girl, pregnancy, a child to be raised despite murky parentage, twisted thoughts, artificial justice, miscarriage of justice, powerful rich, white townsmen revealed as the privileged, above the law thinking louts they are and finally real justice brought to bear upon those who committed the rape so long ago.

You Can’t Save Them All is writer Michelle’s third fiction novel. This particular work precedes novel number four, Millicent Quinones, which is actually the prequel to Mycall, book two.

When Jeanette Michelle first approached me regarding reviewing her books; her question was whether I would mind reviewing books written from a black perspective. I assured her it was no problem for me despite the fact that I am not black. And, I’m happy to say, that You Can’t Save Them All has proven to be an excellent read written with a black viewpoint, using a black voice and offered by a black woman author. I enjoyed the read very much.

Filled with notable personality, writer Michelle crafts a fast paced thriller filled with convincing characters, excellent detailed settings, a credible storyline and a satisfactory conclusion. Ethel is a strong, witty woman filled with insight and determination. The scoundrels of the work are evocative of some of the instances and persons who fill the evening news now and then.

I hope writer Michelle has another narrative or two featuring attorney Ethel Reynolds planned for future writing.

While You Can’t Save Them All is the third in writer Michelle’s body of work, I found it to be a satisfactory stand alone read. On the other hand, I do plan to read the rest of the progression, Mycall, and Millicent Quinones as well as Michelle’s first book Taking Care of Henry which I believe does not feature the same cast of characters.

Happy to recommend Jeanette Michelle’s mystery thriller You Can’t Save Them All.


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Reviewed by Molly’s Reviews
molly martin

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Not for everyone, if you are put off by some profanity, reference to sexual matters, or reading a work offered by a talented black woman, featuring talented black actors in a black voice, then this is not the book for you. On the other hand if you enjoy a solid thriller filled with action, and powerful characters you will likely enjoy You Can’t Save Them All as much as did I.

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Available on Amazon, the Author’s website and elsewhere online

TITLE: You Can’t Save Them All
AUTHOR: Jeanette Michelle
GENRE: Mystery Triller

Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation (March 18, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1441574778
ISBN-13: 978-1441574770