Shades of Justice [Paperback]

Linda McKeever Bullard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1999

For a young black female lawyer, Houston is not a place for opportunities. Her dream to become a judge may yet come true, thanks to contacts within the local political arena. But her home life is in a state of disaster--her rebellious daughter and radical activist ex-husband, and the life she's building with her new paramour who just happens to be white and wealthy. When she's appointed special prosecutor on a high profile case, she learns secrets best forgotten, and she will be forced to make a decision that will change her life forever.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Gwen Parrish, the cynical antiheroine and narrator of this disastrous legal thriller, tries the reader's patience from page one. We meet her in bed with the husband of her best friend, Willette Rormier?except Gwen doesn't have any friends. An African American attorney working in Houston, Gwen, determined to become a judge, is sucking up to Willette's father, kingmaker Willie Shalandar. After Willie is murdered, McKeever-Bullard involves Gwen; her boyfriend Dirk Ingersoll (a white Legal Aid lawyer); her teenaged daughter, Ashleigh Lee; and Black Power activist ex-husband Kwame Nkrumah El'Kasid in a plot so ludicrous that it defies summary. Suffice it to say that Gwen inexplicably marries Dirk ("aka Mundane Man"), whom she can't stand, and is appointed special prosecutor in charge of the murder case?opposite sexy firebrand Kwame, who is meanwhile suing for custody of Ashleigh Lee. Along the way, half the characters turn out to be psychopaths; an aspiring politician hides an incestuous pregnancy and commits infanticide in a toilet; a drug-addicted judge is brought down by her lesbian nymphomania; and mundane Dirk is revealed to be not just a Republican (presumably a rare bird in his line of work) but a violent, "nigger"-screaming racist. Sad to say, the "sympathetic" characters, Kwame and Ashleigh Lee, are hardly more enlightened in matters of race, and Gwen is an unreflecting homophobe. Readers might suspect McKeever-Bullard of hiding ultra-noir parody under the glib histrionic girl-talk of her prose, but a fairy-tale ending reveals the shallowness of this unintentionally creepy debut.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Onyx (July 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451197682
• ISBN-13: 978-0451197689
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,362,388 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Deserves less than Zero stars, November 12, 2002

By 

Omni - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shades of Justice (Hardcover)

This book is bad.
It's bubonic plague bad.
Ok, imagine that a nuclear bomb has exploded. You're left alive. Your flesh is decaying, you're sick, you're blind. The book is a little worse than that.
Why is the book bad? We could blame the publisher but that would to easy. We could even blame the writer however this is her BEST idea, so we shouldn't. Instead, lets blame Terry McMillan. Yes, I said it, Terry McMillan. as you may have noted this book's cover has changed from the initial photograph which highlighted the victim----oooh, I mean protagonist Gwen, it is now three multi colored "sistahs" and the line notes are now about their "struggle".
Who started this wave of multi-hued "sistahs" and their struggles? Terry McMillan. Who is propogating this wave? Bad writers.
Now lets talk about the book. Gwen spends most of the book as a victim freely sharing herself sexually with men under the most dubious of circumstances. She tends to lie and manipulate and perpetuate herself as a victim to the point of being destructive to the image of black women. This book is horrendous and I recommend that one not only NOT buy a copy but also warn off friends and family. The quality of the writing is rather juvenile as well,I don't mean to lambast the book but it deserves it and I am ashamed to see the quality of what readers will accept. These self-same readers aren't picking up the writers that are truly of quality, exploring the issues of race and gender. I could name a few but this doesn't strike me as the readership conducive area.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Try Again, August 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Shades of Justice (Paperback)

I have only completed two chapters of this book and I am already disgusted by the repeated use of the "N" word and the belittlement of dark-skinned sistas. I believe that Ms. Bullard has very unreal and distorted views of Black people. I am a dark-skinned woman and I take offense to Ms. Bullard making it seem as if only fair-skinned individauals are beautiful. I happen to know that there a beautiful people in all colors. I know that this book is fiction and I hope that the views that are expressed in this novel are also fictitious. I am going to continue reading this book, but will look over the disrespect.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Good potential but doesn't follow through, July 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Shades of Justice (Paperback)

The overall plot could have been good, but like other people I felt that it was just too unreal. First of all, how come every time we write a book we have give a Who's Who list in the Black community? She spent so much time telling us which places were the best to go and who would be there it just made me sick. I think she was trying to give the impression that this lead character was more than she really was. And what's up with this" LIGHT IS RIGHT" motto she had floating through the whole novel. Come on. How many times do we have to hear that the lead character wishes she was lighter and that her daughter had some of her "good hair". And why was the darkest sister in there a lesbian and fat ?! I found that part to be VERY demeaning. Third, why the stereotypical interracial relationship? That was really sad. There were just too many sorry Uncle Toms, and Sambo black folks for me. Overall, she depicted us as vulgar, power struck, backstabbing negroes. Oh yeah, hated that part " It takes a white woman to break a black man" That's real BS.