God Bless the Child [Hardcover]

James Colbert (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 6, 1993

Sue Hathorne has worked with abused children for almost 20 years. A determined Mississippi Baptist woman, she saw a need for a special centre for abused children in the state capital of Jackson. But Sue didn't have any money. Then she met Robert Malone, whose nightly bingo games take in astronomical sums of money and who, under Mississippi law, needed to donate some of his proceeds to charity. Then the real game began - for no sooner did Robert give Sue a check for $6000 than the Attorney General for the state raided Malone's Bingo Depot and indicted him. Ambitious, publicity-hungry, the Attorney General charged - in the face of common sense and local custom of several decades - that bingo was illegal. And so the stakes were raised - for Sue, for Robert, for the thousands of abused children (one of whose stories is told here in detail) - and the outcome would prove crucial for them all. James Colbert has also written the novels, "Profit and Sheen", "No Special Hurry", "Skinny Man" and "All I Have Is Blue".

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A woman's campaign against child abuse, a courtroom drama and political infighting over Mississippi's gambling laws are elements in this stirring report. Its focus is Sue Hathorn, who sought funding for a center for abused children that she opened in Jackson. Despite her adherence to Baptism, which frowns on gambling, Hathorn became partners with Robert Malone, owner of a bingo parlor, who faced racketeering charges for allegedly running a high-stakes racket under the guise of a charitable organization. Mississippi's attorney general Mike Moore--portrayed here as politically ambitious and overzealous--held that bingo, being a type of lottery, was illegal under the state constitution, but the Mississippi Supreme Court disagreed and cleared Malone in 1990. Intertwined with these proceedings is the searing account of a nine-year-old girl sexually abused by her stepfather; we see her lost in a maze of courts and shelters, a bureaucracy the author implicitly condemns as irresponsible. Crime novelist Colbert ( Skinny Man ) draws on court records, interviews, and verbatim and reconstructed conversations to show how families and child protective services are failing our children. Photos.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Colbert, author of procedural detective novels All I Have Is Blue ( LJ 6/1/92) and Skinny Man ( LJ 2/1/92), brings his talent for narrative to a fascinating account of the bureacracy of child welfare, the business of bingo, and the swamps of Mississippi politics. The chief players are Sue Hathorn, who needs money for a child advocacy center that works to help child abuse victims rather than "revictimize" them; Robert Malone, owner of the highly lucrative Bingo Depot, who gives Hathorn a $6000 check for her center, and a brace of lawyers, each with a personal agenda for or against the legitimization of the bingo game. Then there is "The Child," an all-too-familiar figure caught in the machinations of legalese and beauracracy after she reluctantly admits to abuse by her step-father. An interesting mix of sociology and political science, this book addresses the problems of juvenile justice, the ethics of gambling, and the state of social welfare. Recommended for general collections.
- Ebba Kraar King, Melbourne P.L., Fla.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Scribner (January 6, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689121679
• ISBN-13: 978-0689121678
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,010,519 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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