No Place Safe: A Family Memoir [Paperback]

Kim Reid (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2007

In this compelling memoir, Kim Reid hauntingly transports readers to the innocent world of a childhood protected by a loving home, yet threatened by a danger beyond any child's understanding...

Thirteen-year-old Kim Reid will never forget the summer of 1979. In those precious free moments when she is not taking care of her little sister while her single mother works as a cop, Kim's days are filled with thoughts of boys, makeup, and starting high school in the fall. When a heartbreaking discovery along a quiet Atlanta road makes the news, Kim's mother instructs her girls to be careful. Accustomed to her mother's warnings, Kim feels she already knows how to stay alert and carry herself as if she's not scared.

But as the shadow of danger lengthens over Kim's once-sunny landscape of friends and family, she learns there is no place safe. While her mother becomes preoccupied with her increasingly high-profile job, Kim feels life unraveling. Straddling the worlds of her black neighborhood and her wealthy white school, teetering on the brink between girl and woman, Kim is torn between fitting in and finding her own voice; between becoming strong and clinging to the last traces of her childhood.

In this deeply intimate, powerful narrative, Kim Reid weaves an unforgettable story of growing up and the events that shape us forever...

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Reid's well-composed, straightforward memoir recounts the two fraught years of her adolescence when a serial killer terrorized Atlanta. Reid's mother, an investigator in the Fulton County District Attorney's Office in 1979, told her every detail of the quest for the murderer of 29 victims, mostly young black boys. Meanwhile, Reid attended a Catholic school in an all-white part of town, torn between loyalty to her black neighborhood friends and the desire to fit in with the white kids and feel safe at her private school, located far from the danger zone of her neighborhood. Her mother was strict and cracked down on her liberty while piling on adult responsibilities such as taking care of her younger sister, Bridgette. But that made her no less a hero in Reid's eyes as she hunted for the killer and supported Reid's efforts to diversify her school curriculum. Reid maintains a lively sense of dialogue and characterization, and her memoir is an affecting tale of a girl's transformation in a climate of fear and pervasive, bleak Southern racism. (Oct.)
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From Booklist

Part mystery thriller, part coming-of-age story, and part civil-rights history, this gripping memoir is set at the time of the horrific Atlanta child murders and told through the eyes of a young African American teen whose mom is a cop on the task force searching for the serial killer. Just after the first two bodies are found in 1979, Kim, 13, enters a white private school in the suburbs, far from her inner-city neighborhood. Over the next two years, a total of 29 black boys are found dead. Is the killer a Klansman type? Could he be a black man? The racism at school is ugly. No one there cares about the murdered inner-city kids. So why does Kim stay in the fancy school? Is she playing white? Is she running for safety? As the climax builds, and her mom brings home more and more details of the murder investigation, Kim's personal conflicts are as intense for her as the terror outside. Rochman, Hazel

Product Details

• Paperback: 310 pages
• Publisher: Dafina (October 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0758220529
• ISBN-13: 978-0758220523
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,666,620 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Coming of Age in a Dangerous World, October 10, 2007

By 

M. P. McKinney (Ohio) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: No Place Safe: A Family Memoir (Paperback)

Kim Reid's No Place Safe is an up-close-and-personal account of the Atlanta Child Murders. Kim Reid was thirteen years-old when the Atlanta Child Murders began in 1979. Her world was turned upside-down as she and her younger sister adjusted to new safety measures that stifled the carefree life most children experienced when not under the constant threat of a serial killer. Her mother's role, as a Task Force investigator on the case, increased Reid's awareness beyond that of any child and most adults. Despite the dangers that lurked around her, Reid was able to enjoy, and in some cases, endure basic rites of passage common to all children: babysitting a younger sibling, puberty, making out at house parties, trying to fit in at a new school and holding down a part-time job.

Kim Reid offers a unique perspective of this event as a young teenage daughter of an investigator in No Place Safe. She exposes the full range of fear, anger, uncertainty, frustration and small pockets of joy that she, her family and the community felt throughout this time period. Her depiction of the city and suburbs of Atlanta is as alive and vivid as any human character she portrays. Readers will appreciate and applaud Kim Reid's ability to enjoy the basic beauty of life only seen through the eyes of a young person under very frightening conditions. Book groups will enjoy the the discussion questions available at the end of the book which touch upon a number of thought-provoking themes presented in the story. This book is highly recommended for anyone curious about the impact and influence of the Atlanta Child Murders on children of that era.

Reviewed by M. P. McKinney
APOOO BookClub

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Almost!, December 5, 2007

By 

Faye Quam Heimerl - Book Editor "Quam Editorial" (Westminster, CO) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: No Place Safe: A Family Memoir (Paperback)

Author Kim Reid beautifully captured the voice of an Atlanta 13-year-old who is mother to her younger sister while their single mom works as a police officer; is one of few black students who attend an all-white private school in a distant, affluent neighborhood; and who lives unnervingly close to where dozens of black boys and young men have been murdered (Atlanta Child Murders starting in 1979).

Reid includes information that isn't common knowledge--at least not to me: "Until the early sixties, black officers could arrest only black citizens. In 1979, white and black patrolmen had been allowed to partner in only the last ten years, and black cops were still in a minority, which meant they stuck together outside of work. The only tie that bound black and white cops then was the fact that on the job, they were cops regardless of what they looked like. Fortunately, that was usually enough."

In one instance she brilliantly summarizes her mother's character: A white police officer stopped by her house at 2:00 a.m., expecting to be accommodated. "At two in the morning?' Ma said. Cop or no cop, she sounded like she was ready to bless the man out. There weren't many things that pleased Ma as much as a good night's sleep, which I always believed was here escape from having to work extra jobs, being a cop, a single mother, and just being a black woman in general."

If this book had been written as a young adult novel set in 1979-1982, I would give it five stars. Why? Because it focuses on issues that are still important to teens today. Reid's title is also good for a novel, although I'd suggest she come up with one that hasn't been used before, so it'll be more recognizable. But as a memoir, the book is thin; it should have included more information about the murders, and an more in-depth analysis of what her mother and sister also went through.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Compelling, fast read!, October 2, 2007

By 

Carleen Brice "author" (Colorado) - See all my reviews

This review is from: No Place Safe: A Family Memoir (Paperback)

Beautifully written and carefully researched, No Place Safe explores the Atlanta Child Murders from 2 compelling angles: a girl coming of age during that time (1979-1981) and her mother, a lead investigator on several of the cases. The author could have rested on the laurels of the intensity of the subject matter, but didn't. Instead, she digs deep for thoughtful insights on family, love, duty, gender, class and race. Highly recommended!