FALL READING
A Grave Injustice
REVIEWED BY JULIE MALEAR, Author of Shattered Bonds, More Precious Than Rubies

By Prudy Taylor Board
(Archebooks Publishing, $28.99)

A Grave Injustice, Prudy Taylor Board's latest novel, joins her delightful, celebritycook

murder series in bringing praise to this distinctive and prolific writer. Both are fastpaced, exciting mysteries but A Grave Injustice sports an added surprise - a touch of the supernatural.

It takes strong writing skills to make readers accept as natural that a man killed years before can communicate daily with a young, truth-seeking reporter, but the author has done exactly that. Board calls her story a "paranormal mystery." Unlike many Twilight Zone stories, however, we are not frightened. Instead, we are sympathetic to the murdered man as he seeks the reporter's help. With Sci- Fi, Board creates an extra dollop of excitement to an already suspenseful plot.

The book erupts with violence before leaping two generations to show saucy, attractive Corey Harris, an excellent journalist at a large Miami newspaper, being unfairly fired. That same day she breaks up with her live-in boy friend, Sean, and taking her two cats, Hummer and Tyler, she drives to her late grandmother Emma's home built on the Buckingham Gunnery School site on the outskirts of Ft. Myers. Although Corey sees soldiers marching by the house, she is told the school from the World War II era is deserted.

A slower-paced city with childhood memories which include her grandmother's kindness after the murder of her parents, Corey finds it a good spot to recover from the double whammy she has just received. She is given a job at the city's main newspaper at the owner's request, but gets little approval from Ben Crawford, the executive editor who wants this big-shot girl from the city to know he is boss. Corey, strictly a professional, does more than her share, wins friends of all ages - each of whom is unique - but soon becomes embroiled in the problems of the long-dead man who entreats her.

As she works to solve the man's mystery, Corey finds a number of people opposing her investigation. Murders happen, she herself is attacked more than once, people die with whom she's scheduled interviews, and she has to fight to do the necessary research. So much is happening, it is almost impossible to put the book down.

A Grave Injustice, despite its many deaths and racing pace, has a very satisfying ending. Corey is successful in more ways than one. Board has created a feisty but fair and unforgettable heroine whom we genuinely like.