The dominant theme of righting the wrong of someone unjustly accused of a crime is underscored by related themes of keeping secrets and the past's influence on the present. When the police arrest Kendrick, an old friend and the brother of her hairstylist Bertha, for the murder of a beautiful and popular bartender, Mali agrees to try to find the real murderer since the police, already having a viable suspect for just one of hundreds of murders in Harlem that year, are uninterested in pursing the case any further. Like most others who know Kendrick, Mali does not believe that he could have shot Thea point blank in the face. Kendrick admits that they had argued, but says that he loved her very much and wanted to marry her. In the process of trying to find out what really happened, Mali learns a great...