Lost in the Garden of Eve

Atlanta stripper–turned–investigative reporter Keke McCoy looks into a case that hits close to home in Divine’s underbaked sequel to An Epitaph for Jezebel. At the outset, Keke is still recovering from injuries she sustained during her last investigation for the Atlanta Metro Journal, which involved the murder of a fellow pole dancer. Then she gets word that teenage strippers have been mysteriously disappearing from the Pimp Palace, one of her old haunts, including 16-year-old Mocha Jackson. Intrigued, she heads back to the suburb of Indian Springs and the company of her former colleagues at the Honey Spot strip club, seeing if she can pump any of them for information—especially the establishment’s outspoken owner, pistol-packing Josephine “HoneyMama” Thibodeaux. Meanwhile, Keke’s occasional lover, police detective Elijah Drew, is pursuing his own investigation, causing tension in their relationship. Poignant and sometimes harrowing sections narrated by the missing Mocha alternate with those following Drew and Keke, lending the story added emotional weight, and Keke’s foulmouthed former colleagues enliven the proceedings. Unfortunately, the novel’s well-executed themes of sisterhood don’t quite make up for the predictable core mystery. It’s a mixed bag. (Nov.)