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The Viaduct [Hardcover]

Grace F. Edwards (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)


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Book Description

Edwards, Grace F. December 30, 2003
“Everything started on that viaduct and that’s where everything ends.”

Violence. Death. Despair. Suspense writer Grace F. Edwards presents a heart-stopping twister that follows the interconnecting lives of two shattered men. Marin Taylor, a Vietnam vet, is accosted one night on a Harlem viaduct. In the struggle, Marin throws one man to his death; the other flees after stabbing Marin and stealing his wallet. The two attackers were brothers, and Conroy, the brother who survived, vows to avenge his brother’s death. Marin survives the attack, but his injuries and the terror he experienced awaken graphic memories of an incident he was involved in four years earlier in Vietnam. He is still recuperating when his newborn child is kidnapped from the hospital. Struggling with his own emotional turmoil and wife’s devastating reaction to the kidnapping, Marin must race against time to stop a deranged stalker from carrying out an act of deadly revenge.

As Marin searches for his missing child, Edwards brilliantly brings to life Harlem in the 1970s: the political figures, the local restaurants, night clubs, and dance halls, and the famous “3 B’s of Harlem”—beauty parlors, barbershops, and bars. In her expert hands, readers are treated not only to gripping suspense, but also to a richly detailed glimpse of Harlem’s lively and complex history.

Edwards takes us on a gripping journey through dire streets and lost dreams. Readers will meet compelling characters who grapple with past demons and the uncertain present of shadowy Harlem nights.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Like Edwards's Mali Anderson cop series (Do or Die; If I Should Die; etc.), this colorful if predictable stand-alone thriller is set in Harlem. It is 1972, and Marin Taylor, a 30-year-old Vietnam vet who survived (and relives in his nightmares) some of the war's worst moments, has a good job as a printer and a loving wife, Margaret, who is about to give birth to their first child. But Marin loses his job, and then is mugged for his final paycheck on a bridge over the Harlem River on his way home. He manages to toss one of the robbers to his death-and thus begins a vendetta against him and his family by the survivor, Conroy Henderson, the younger and less stable of a team of brothers. Egged on by threats from a gang lord who paid for his brother's funeral and now wants the money back, Henderson loses his already fragile grip on reality, and kidnaps Margaret's baby daughter from the hospital. The police think both the mugging and the baby's disappearance are drug related and don't push the case, so it's up to Marin and his Vietnam buddy, Chance, a resourceful postman, to get the infant back. Edwards is able to conjure up the nightlife outside a Harlem bar with period resonance-"high class stops where top-down Caddies and Buick Deuce 'n a Quarters pulled to the curb. Money men behind the wheel with women so fine, you get arrested just for stealin' a glance"-but evocative descriptions can't make up for the plodding plot and flat denouement.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Marin Taylor, a Vietnam veteran, is haunted by nightmares of the war and anxious about the future. He and his wife, Margaret, are expecting their first baby. On his way home one night to announce that he has been laid off from his job, Marin is attacked by two robbers wearing nylon masks. Marin goes into battle mode and throws one of his attackers over the railing of a viaduct, killing him. Wounded by the other robber, Marin recovers only to face the kidnapping of his newborn daughter and Margaret's slow descent into depression. Marin teams up with war buddy Chance to find the kidnapper, and the two stumble into a conflict between a drug lord and Marin's attacker, a conflict that involves crooked cops and the seamy drug world. Edwards, author of the popular Mali Anderson mystery series, once again sets a suspenseful drama in Harlem, evoking its history and topography as Marin Taylor desperately searches to recover not only his daughter but also some emotional stability. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 272 pages
  • Publisher: Doubleday; First Edition edition (December 30, 2003)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0385502001
  • ISBN-13: 978-0385502009
  • Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,351,763 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
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 (3)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:
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Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Not With My Daughter, April 13, 2004
By 
Dera R Williams (Oakland, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Viaduct (Hardcover)
As a Viet Nam vet, Marin Taylor has seen the horrors of war; mothers and babies who died at the hands of U.S. soldiers, the dog-eat-dog life of the jungle and witnessing his comrades' death at the hand of the Viet Kong. Grace Edwards, in The Viaduct, continues with yet another suspenseful tale set in her native Harlem. Marin still has flashbacks and nightmares from the past. But nothing prepares him for the unbelievable horror of his newborn daughter's kidnapping from the hospital less than twenty-four hours after her birth. With his wife, Margaret, now in a catatonic state because of the abduction, he feels like he is facing the war all over again.

In just a few days Marin's life has changed. One minute he had a job and a future with the woman he loves. Told that he is laid off, he stops at his favorite watering hole to contemplate how he is going to tell his eight month pregnant wife that he is now unemployed. On his way home with his severance pay in his pocket, his mind preoccupied, he is accosted by two street thugs, who rob him. But not before there is a struggle and Marin, in an attempt to save himself, throws one of them over the viaduct. But this is Harlem, 1970s and the police believe because this incident involves black men, it must be a drug deal gone bad.

When Margaret goes to the hospital to give birth a few days later, the last thing the couple expects is that they will go home without a baby. But that harsh fact becomes a reality when Conroy, a street thug, carries out the kidnapping as payback for his brother's death. Removed from reality, Conroy lives in a fantasy world where he imagines himself a big time hustler. In reality, his dead brother, Tito, was the mastermind of their crime sprees; now he owes the local loan shark for the funeral and he has a strong contempt for nine-to five employment.

The viaduct where the robbery occurred becomes a symbol for crime, tragedy and eventually triumph as Marin attempts to unravel the misfortune that has claimed his life. This was no big time mystery nor was there a great deal of suspense. Additionally, Conroy was so dimwitted at times he came across as a caricature and some of the characters, though colorful were somewhat one-dimensional. However, Edwards's strength is her great writing skills and the ability to give the reader a sense of place and time. Her portrayal of underground Harlem as an entity to itself, set apart from the rest of New York, was nicely done. As a first time reader of this author, this reviewer is impressed enough to seek out the rest of her titles which are also set in Harlem. This was a Marcus Book Club pick of Marcus Book Store in Oakland.

Dera Williams
Marcus Book Club
APOOO BookClub

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3.0 out of 5 stars '70's Harlem Humanity, December 7, 2011
By 
Jeffrey Swystun (Ottawa & New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Viaduct (Hardcover)
For a novel written in 2003, it's characters and setting seem to capture '70's Harlem with great accuracy. I am fascinated with that decade in New York's history for it's grim times. And the city provides a great backdrop for a series of unfortunate events. While the plot proves to be ultimately unoriginal, I found myself caring for Marin and Margaret and their kidnapped daughter. Harlem is depicted as it's own village where news can travel fast like a town in the old west. It is dirty, depressed but projects a collective humanity through a few powerfully noble characters making this tale melancholy but compelling.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Captivating and so human, August 22, 2006
This review is from: The Viaduct (Hardcover)
The characters all seem so real as I got to know them and could view their neighborhoods vividly as I was engrossed in each page.
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
Marin eased off the bar stool and walked over to the jukebox, dropped a quarter, and randomly pressed five selections. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Mama Pat, Seventh Avenue, Eighth Avenue, Lenox Avenue, Miss Adelaide, Sugar Hill, Detective Benjamin, Fifth Avenue, Harlem River, New York, Harlem Hospital, Basie's Lounge, Flash Inn, Gloria Lynne, Las Vegas
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