WHAT YOU LEAVE BEHIND

Joniece Abbott-Pratt gives a dramatic performance of this flawed but interesting social issue drama. Her remarkably beautiful voice makes a sympathetic vehicle for the heroine, Deena Wood, a young, Black lawyer who has come home to Brunswick, Georgia, to nurse her wounds after a series of personal disasters. Deena's growing obsession with an old man's strange disappearance leads her to sort out a truly disgusting real-life phenomenon in which developers use trickery to displace rightful property owners and deliberately blight neighborhoods to create advantageous prices for their own plans. Combining tropes from gothic, horror, and romance novels, as well as from crime and legal thrillers, this novel could have used some editorial discipline, but the lush performances are excellent and make for a memorable listen. B.G. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 2024]