Time's Undoing
A Novel
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4.0 • 5 Ratings
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
A searing and tender novel about a young Black journalist’s search for answers in the unsolved murder of her great-grandfather in segregated Birmingham, Alabama, decades ago—inspired by the author’s own family history
Birmingham, 1929: Robert Lee Harrington, a master carpenter, has just moved to Alabama to pursue a job opportunity, bringing along his pregnant wife and young daughter. Birmingham is in its heyday, known as the “Magic City” for its booming steel industry, and while Robert and his family find much to enjoy in the city’s busy markets and vibrant nightlife, it’s also a stronghold for the Klan. And with his beautiful, light-skinned wife and snazzy car, Robert begins to worry that he might be drawing the wrong kind of attention.
2019: Meghan McKenzie, the youngest reporter at the Detroit Free Press, has grown up hearing family lore about her great-grandfather’s murder—but no one knows the full story of what really happened back then, and his body was never found. Determined to find answers to her family’s long-buried tragedy and spurred by the urgency of the Black Lives Matter movement, Meghan travels to Birmingham. But as her investigation begins to uncover dark secrets that spider across both the city and time, her life may be in danger.
Inspired by true events, Time’s Undoing is both a passionate tale of one woman’s quest for the truth behind the racially motivated trauma that has haunted her family for generations and, as newfound friends and supporters in Birmingham rally around Meghan’s search, the uplifting story of a community coming together to fight for change.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A Black journalist investigates an ancestor's murder in the meandering latest from Head (Charlene Mack Motown Series). In 2019, Meghan McKenzie, 28, covers the Black Lives Matter movement for the Detroit Free Press and convinces her editor to send her to Birmingham, Ala., to look into her great-grandfather Robert Harrington's 1929 death, following up on a family legend that he was killed by a cop. With the help of white librarian Kristen Gleason, smooth city official Darius Curren, and BLM leader Monique Hendricks, Meghan makes inroads with older Black residents who provide information and direction for her search. But her research into a crooked cop who was also murdered soon draws suspicion from locals, who attempt to threaten her into silence. As Meghan continues her quest and entertains her attraction to Darius, flashbacks fill in Robert's life as a carpenter who is begrudgingly respected by white folks and whose flashy car and unwillingness to be meek draws the wrong kind of attention. Eventually, the leisurely pacing of Meghan's investigation gives way to a hasty conspiracy-riddled final act. Though imperfect, the author's meticulous tracing of racism's legacies will intrigue historical fiction fans.
