In The Blood

The trouble with K.C. Brown's dream of playing alto sax for a local jazz band is that she's a nineteen-year-old white girl, the band members are middle-aged black men, the year is 1948, and they all live in a racially divided town in Iowa.  To succeed, she and the band must overcome resistance from both sides of the color barrier, and accept that ambition often comes with loss.  In the Blood explores the cultural, sexual, generational, and economic issues in post-World War II America, framed in the context of a friendship and understanding that develops between K.C. and the band's ailing trombonist, Freddie Ross. This book is about music, it's about cultural shifts, and it's about life. In the Blood is smartly written, with every musical term and description spot-on. —Diane Thayer, music educator   In the Blood is a tour de force....   —Donald Schneider, Midwest Book Reviews