LocalLit book preview: Joliet resident publishes book with ‘literary collective looking to amplify the voices of Black and Brown writers’

Several weeks ago, I received an email asking if I’d like to review a “fast-paced, hard-hitting, character-driven and completely immersive novel” written by Joliet resident Alverne Ball, a novel that “deftly weaves political and social issues into the riveting plot.”

I was curious, so I looked up Ball’s other works. One is a graphic novel called “Across the Tracks: Remembering the Tulsa Race Massacre and Black Wall Street” that was illustrated by Stacey Robinson and given good reviews by Publisher’s Weekly and Booklist. This novel is available on Amazon.

Ball is also the author of “Only The Holy Remain,” a crime fiction featuring protagonist Detective Frank Calhoun. This novel is available on Amazon. Ball’s upcoming novel, “Blue Religion,” the one I will review Tuesday in the LocalLit newsletter, is a sequel to “Only the Holy Remain.”

This book will not be released until Oct. 14, but it is available for pre-order now at vitalnarrative.com. The publisher for “Blue Religioin” is Vital Narrative Press, “a literary collective looking to amplify the voices of Black and Brown writers in an industry” where they are “vastly underrepresented and undervalued,” according to its website.

Here is the description of “Blue Religion” on the Vital Narrative website: “In the sequel to 2016′s “Only The Holy Remain,” Detective Frank Calhoun springs back into action after a social worker and a rookie police officer are murdered in Chicago’s East Garfield Park.

“Flanked by his new partner Fred Lions, while also battling remnants of his father’s recent conviction, Frank chases down clues across the city as he begins to assemble pieces of the case. With mounting pressure from his girlfriend Gloria, as well as the assistant state’s attorney striving to make a career off the case’s headlines, Frank must keep his head on straight as he attempts to find the killer and navigate the pitfalls of the blue religion.”

Subscribe to the free newsletter at shawlocal.com/the-herald-news/newsletter/#// and read the review on Tuesday.

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