Synopsis
Miami, Florida - one of America's most exotic and dangerous cities - is journalist Edna Buchanan's beat. In the widely acclaimed The Corpse Had a Familiar Face and Never Let Them See You Cry, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Miami Herald reporter took her readers through the dark underbelly of the Sunshine State, where murder, drugs, and corruption are as common as sand on the beaches.
Now, Buchanan brings her years of hard-won experience, her unflinching eye, and her warm and witty prose style to bear in her powerful new novel. In Contents Under Pressure, she combines the best ingredients of suspense writing - seat-of-the-pants action, an intelligent and beautiful protagonist, and a complicated murder - and heats them up under a Miami sun for a thrillingly combustible outcome. Britt Montero is a crime reporter for a major Miami newspaper, and an oddity in a man's domain - a blonde, green-eyed Cuban-American woman tough enough to investigate even the most terrifying of homicides, but with a tender spot for the city's underdogs. The latest report to come in seems fairly cut and dried: several cops on the midnight shift chase a black motorist, and the fleeing man, a former football hero, winds up dead.
However, as Britt begins her story on the accident, she discovers a number of disturbing facts about that night. Despite warnings to stay away, she starts to investigate what really happened - taking the reader from the high-intensity atmosphere of the newsroom to riding on the midnight beat with the cops, to the outraged black community that threatens to erupt into violence. Along the way she consorts with her own network of contacts, both solid citizens and nefarious nightbirds - and takes on a forbidden lover, a man she may not be able to trust. As the city explodes in a riot, Britt is caught up in events that bring the novel to a heart-shuddering climax. Contents Under Pressure is an immensely satisfying read, one that will leave its audience craving more.
Reviews
The steaming, seething city of Miami is the compelling setting for a Pulitzer Prize-winning police reporter in Buchanan's ( The Corpse Had a Familiar Face ; Nobody Lives Forever ) series launch . Blonde, green-eyed and game, Cuban American Britt Montero is, at 31, a respected crime reporter for a Miami daily. Nevertheless, she is stonewalled in her investigation of the death of former pro football player D. Wayne Hudson, a beloved figure in the city's black community who died in a car crash while being chased by officers on the midnight shift--"a dumping ground for violent, trouble-prone cops." Pursuing the truth about Hudson's death, the dedicated Britt must contend with an editor interested only in soft news, with her fashion- and marriage-obsessed mother, and with the conflicts inherent in her romance with a homicide detective. After Britt breaks her story about excessive police violence, the ensuing trial and verdict lead to a breathtaking explosion of arson and sniper fire, from which Britt barely escapes with her life. A few cartoonish cast members don't diminish the impact of Buchanan's closely observed and affectionately portrayed stars, her extremely likable heroine and Miami at night. 75,000 first printing; $100,000 ad/promo; author tour; Literary Guild main selection.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
A fictional version of Miami Herald crime-reporter Buchanan's memoirs (Never Let Them See You Cry; The Corpse Had a Familiar Face)--i.e., a tale (reporter investigates suspicious death) surging with sentiment and crackling action, and far more appealing than the author's debut novel, Nobody Lives Forever (1990). Buchanan's alter ego here is Cuban-American Miami Daily News staffer Britt Montero, who seems poised for a series run with all the proper paraphernalia--feisty personality, fractured love life, intriguing sidekick (a photographer gal-pal), irritating boss. The sleek, first-person narrative centers on Montero's digging into the death of ex-football star D. Wayne Hudson, black, who, fleeing from police, allegedly smashed his car and died of his injuries while hospitalized. As Montero talks with the cops who pursued Hudson, a disturbing pattern emerges: All Anglo or Hispanic, with few exceptions, they are violent misfits exiled onto the wild midnight shift--a shift that Montero explores in the company of a homicide cop who soon shares her bed. Meanwhile, back at the office, crank callers (including Montero's mom) and a harebrained scheme to set a young reporter adrift in simulation of Haitian refugees add some edgy comic relief. Soon, though, the action turns downright nasty as Montero comes up with evidence that gets the midnight cops indicted--and then further evidence pointing to a coldblooded murderer wearing the blue. The ensuing trial and verdict lead to a Rodney King-style riot that flames across Miami and to the melodramatic but intensely exciting closing pages, which see Montero running from crazed mobs even as she's stalked by the killer. Formulaic, but Montero's a charmer and her story seethes with the street-life that her creator knows so well: first-rate entertainment. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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