Bill Morris | Fiction

This book delighted me to the tips of my toes.  It is fast-paced, well-constructed, sufficiently well written (it is a mystery, not a literary tome, and it puts on no airs to pretend it is what it isn’t.)  The story line is unusual; it's not a formulaic who-done-it.  No, it flows in a more complex and interesting way.

You will follow the life of Willie Bledsoe, who moves to Detroit from Alabama, after his time in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Snick.  You’ll experience the Detroit race riots of 1967, along with the killing of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, all decorated like a Christmas tree with stories and scenes of the blossoming Detroit Tigers in 1967 and 1968.

Motor City Burning is a solid four hearts for me, but I am giving it three because I believe not all of my blog readers will resonate with every page in the way I did.  First of all, you have to be old enough to be alive and aware of the race riots in the 60’s, and have a sense of the profound turmoil the country was in.  Second, I was enamored by all the Detroit landmarks that set the stage for Motor City Burning.  If you aren’t from Detroit, or have no interest in the Midwest during this time of racial unrest, you may not have the same experience as I.  Those objections being met, read this novel for the picture it vividly draws and the story it tells.

Thank you Mark M for this recommendation.