A Toast Before Dying

Book excerpt: Murder casts a shadow over the soul of Harlem.... When she's not studying for her master's or dropping in on her father's jazz gigs, ex-cop Mali Anderson checks out the scene at Harlem's smoky Half-Moon Bar. She wasn't there for singer-bartender Thea Morris's birthday party, but someone else was--someone who shot Thea to death outside in the alley. Was it her boyfriend, now sitting in jail on suspicion of murder? His sister insists he's innocent--and wants her friend Mali to clear his name. Thea herself is a mystery: a lonely beauty in an apartment too deluxe for a woman living on tip money, with a gamut of lovers from an aspiring actor to an ambitious politician. It will take all Mali's savvy--and sources from street-corner buzz to uptown cocktail chat--to unravel Thea's life and death. And it will take her every survival instinct to catch a killer who will kill again to keep a deadly secret.