{"id":8296,"date":"2016-01-04T13:00:39","date_gmt":"2016-01-04T18:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cemeterydanceonline.com\/?p=7322"},"modified":"2016-01-04T13:00:39","modified_gmt":"2016-01-04T18:00:39","slug":"review-the-strange-crimes-of-little-africa-by-chesya-burke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/review-the-strange-crimes-of-little-africa-by-chesya-burke\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: &#039;The Strange Crimes of Little Africa&#039; by Chesya Burke"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Strange-Crimes-Little-Africa\/dp\/194151958X\/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1451928700&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=strange+crimes+of+little+africa\" target=\"_blank\"><strong><em><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7324\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Strange-Case-or-Little-Africa-187x300.jpg?resize=187%2C300\" alt=\"Strange-Case-or-Little-Africa\" width=\"187\" height=\"300\" \/>The Strange Crimes of Little Africa\u00a0<\/em>by\u00a0Chesya Burke<\/strong><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>Rothco Press\u00a0(December 2015)<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>201\u00a0pages; $17.99 paperback\/$2.99 e-book<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Reviewed by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AntonCancre\" target=\"_blank\">Anton Cancre<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve been a fan of Chesya Burke\u2019s short stories for years. \u201cThe Unremembered\u201d from the <em>Dark Faith<\/em> anthology floored me, and her collection\u00a0<em>Let\u2019s Play White<\/em>\u00a0is pure fire. Given that, I was extremely excited when she decided to write a novel, but <em>The Strange Crimes of Little Africa<\/em> had some fairly big boots to step into.<\/p>\n<p>Ostensibly, <em>Strange Crimes<\/em> is a mystery. Anthropology student Jaz Idawell\u2019s cousin is arrested for the murder of her uncle several years before, but she knows he didn\u2019t do it. With the help of the one and only Zora Neal Hurston, she is determined to find the truth, no matter what it costs her. Of course, like all of the best mysteries, the case isn\u2019t really the point. Jaz\u2019s search becomes a search for her own identity and her own history.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>This is a strange one to review, because the basic premise seems so banal. What changes everything about it is how well Chesya captures and displays the reality of 1920s Harlem, especially as compared to the manner in which popular culture has displayed both that time and place. Not that this should come as a surprise to any fans of Burke\u2019s previous work. She has never been one to shy away from the ugliness and horror that everyday people inflict on each other. At the same time, she walks the line between message and story, avoiding outright diatribe and stump speeches.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019d be lying if I told you <em>Strange Crimes<\/em> was a fun little romp between the pages. It\u2019s ugly and mean and horrific in painful ways, but it\u2019s also passionate and honest and damn beautiful as well. There\u2019s also this bit in the family basement that creeped the holy hell out of me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Strange Crimes of Little Africa\u00a0by\u00a0Chesya Burke Rothco Press\u00a0(December 2015) 201\u00a0pages; $17.99 paperback\/$2.99 e-book Reviewed by\u00a0Anton Cancre I\u2019ve been a fan of Chesya Burke\u2019s short stories for years. \u201cThe Unremembered\u201d from the Dark Faith anthology floored me, and her collection\u00a0Let\u2019s Play White\u00a0is pure fire. Given that, I was extremely excited when she decided to write &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/review-the-strange-crimes-of-little-africa-by-chesya-burke\/\" class=\"more-link button bg-gold white\">Continue Reading!<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Review: &#039;The Strange Crimes of Little Africa&#039; by Chesya Burke&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[80],"tags":[399,565,42,79,566],"class_list":["post-8296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-anton-cancre","tag-chesya-burke","tag-featured","tag-reviews","tag-the-strange-crimes-of-little-africa"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Review: &#039;The Strange Crimes of Little Africa&#039; 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