Bruce Sinclair

Not Exactly Stealin' Bruce Sinclair

Not Exactly Stealin', the first in the series, is a dark comedy about ancestor worship, rare Southern antiquities, and good old-fashioned greed. It focuses on a 130-year-old diary of a black freedwoman, and features five female characters: Dale Ralston, one-time set designer for the New York fashion industry now married to a corrupt state politician; Rannie Ralston, Dale?s sister-in-law, a hard-charging lawyer; Moira, Dale?s other sister-in-law, a dreamy, overgrown child who lives in the haze of history; Mary Canty Ralston, Dale?s mother-in-law, an avaricious lush; and, Tamzie, their maid who observes, records, and becomes dangerously tangled in theft and murder. These novels describe Charleston before it became totally infested by rich Yankees. Large shabby pockets remained ungentrified?old families lived in old houses and maintained old rituals.