Gone Quiet

A subtle, 100% realistic look inside a middle-class African-American community. The citizens of Lincoln Prairie, a suburb of Chicago, are bound together by church, work, and knowing everything about each other -- or so they think. But when deacon Henry Hamilton is smothered in his own bed, the entire community is forced to examine their memories and assumptions about the victim, his family (a wife who loathes him and three troubled adult daughters) and his place …

…central character. Bland's prose style is unassuming and straightforward with one particularly strong point: she makes superb use of details, gestures, and anecdotes to illuminate the lives of her characters. Younger readers might find this book's mise en scène somewhat old-fashioned (phrases like "loose morals" are used, for instance), but mature readers will appreciate a depiction of Black America that features church, community, and self-improvement rather than slums, automatic weapons, and indiscriminate drug abuse.