Amazon Mike Lee Books Cush City Books Black Book Plus Category:  Mystery/Suspense Publisher: Michael C. Lee ISBN-10:  0976683016 Type: Fiction Pages: 230 Copyright: July 2, 2007 ISBN-13: 9780976683018 In this sequel to Lee’s debut novel, Chandler Park Drive, readers are re-acquainted with Detroit cop Denard Blake. In Overturned, Blake is investigating the brutal murders of a young woman and her two children. As the investigation intensifies, Blake discovers that the same gun used to kill the woman and her children was also used to kill several others, including a drug dealer and a hotel clerk. Meanwhile, convicted felon Thelmon Kirkwood is in federal prison on drug charges, while Thelmon’s wife Nichelle, with the assistance of defense attorney Kathy London try to get his conviction overturned. All roads in Blake’s investigations lead to Thelmon Kirkwood.    Excerpt Totally disregarding the long line of willing patrons, Terrence Kennedy flashed his badge to the bouncer, and walked in. The newly promoted Violent Crimes lieutenant had just finished up at 1300 Beaubien, Detroit Police Headquarters. Flood’s was within walking distance and he was in desperate need of a drink. Today had been particularly rough. He had responded to a scene on the eastside, where a twenty-seven year old woman and her two children, aged seven and three, were found dead inside their badly burned house. They had what appeared to be bullet wounds. It was a real sloppy job of covering up a murder, or in this case, a triple-murder, done by some heinous creep, or creeps. He could not get the images of their charred remains out of his mind. The mother had been on the basement floor and the children in the stairwell leading up from the basement. Why would someone do this to children is what he kept asking himself. What story did the crime scene tell? Had the children been coming to their mother’s aid or fleeing for their lives? Piecing the puzzle together was a job that he didn’t begrudge those responsible for doing it –Homicide and the Evidence Technicians’ Unit. To boot, a fire fighter at the scene had seemed, almost, ‘relieved’ when he realized that the apparent gunshot victims would not be added to the city’s upcoming count of 79 fire deaths in 1998 –a ten year high. And as if his day hadn't been bad enough, his wife had called to rag on him about working late again. They had only been married for three years, but the pressure seemed to be getting to her already. He thought that by waiting until he was thirty-seven years old to get married, that he’d bypass that type of foolishness. Boy, was I wrong, he thought. His wife complained about everything. If it wasn’t the work hours, it was the garbage that he didn’t take out. If not that, then it was about his dirty socks that he left on the bedroom floor. She was always complaining about something that he had or had not done, but he’d convinced himself that despite her eccentricities and complaints, she wasn’t all that bad. After all, she was a hell of a dime piece for a 35-year old, plus she made good money selling flowers; owned her own floral shop on Coolidge in Oak Park. Terrence had just made it past the dance floor when he looked over the brass railing and saw the most gorgeous woman that he’d laid his eyes on in a while. At forty, Terrence considered himself a looker, too. He was 6’4”, a former University of Michigan point guard reserve, stocky build, brown skinned, salt and pepper fade, with a five o’clock shadow, Hugo Boss suit, Pangborn Tie. He ordered a Long Island Iced Tea from the barmaid and attempted to provide the beauty across the room with a glimpse of his best feature; his perfect pearly whites. He smiled, but she didn’t even notice him. Damn, he thought. As he stared at her, he started to have the feeling that he knew her from somewhere. No, he was certain of it. He’d seen her somewhere before. He racked his brain trying to figure out where. Was it from work? Was she a friend of his wife’s? He couldn’t figure it out. He wanted to approach her, but he was afraid that when he said, ‘Excuse me, but don’t I know you from somewhere?’ she might bust out laughing, thinking that that was the oldest and corniest pickup line in the book. He was certainly not going to approach her now that her dark-skinned girlfriend had returned to their table. He had no desire to be the brunt of their jokes for the rest of the night, but he had to meet this woman. He finally decided that he would wait until the DJ played a song that would be just right to ask her to dance. Not too slow, not too fast, he thought to himself. Just right.

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Overturned
Sequel to Chandler Park Drive

by Michael C. Lee



Thelmon and Nichelle Kirkwood have undergone a drastic change in their lives and things are about to change again for the worse. Thelmon is in prison for a drug possession charge and hoping to get his conviction overturned, thanks to a new lawyer his wife hired for him. Nichelle, on the other hand, is lonely without her husband, and falls into an extra marital affair with a man she meets in a club, who turns out to be a police officer. Things get very interesting, as well as dangerous, when the murders of a young mother and her two children, along with a drug dealer, start pointing to someone in the Kirkwood family.
The second book featuring Detroit cop Denard Blake, Overturned is very realistically written by a former Detroit cop, Michael C. Lee. A little more than half way through, you get quite the surprise as the story takes on amazing twists and turns that you don’t see coming. You get to that point and you think you know what’s going to happen. Lets just say you’ll be Overturned by everything you thought was true.

The Book

Michael C. Lee
July 19, 2007
Paperback / Reviewed ARC
0976683016 / 978-0976683018
Mystery
More at Amazon.com


The Reviewer:

Michelle Shealy
Reviewed January 2008

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