Overview
With technological marvels, daring fashions, and the rhythms of jazz to enjoy, Americans across the nation celebrate the Roaring 20s. In a Black community in Southern Illinois, young psychic Nola Ann Jackson witnesses the grime beneath the glamor when desperate people turn to murder.
Franklin C. “Boss” Dillard has served the people of Agate, Illinois as a state legislature representative and is seeking reelection. Despite being a successful lawyer with connections on both sides of the law, Dillard has been unable to stop the rising wave of crime perpetrated by drug addicts afflicting the city, giving his political opponent enough ammunition to unseat him—and threatening the production of a movie being made in the city about the lives of Black people during the Great War.
Nola and her Aunt Sarah, a hoodoo practitioner, have discovered the source of the addictions. A transplanted Texan named Dr. Eric Spyder has been peddling his “Wonder Tonic”, getting folks hooked, and charging them a premium for the additional doses needed to “adjust” to the medicine’s effects. Aunt Sarah hopes to conjure a cure for Spyder’s concoction, publicly calling him out as a dangerous quack.
Then “Boss” Dillard is found dead, supposedly the victim of an opium overdose. His widow believes he met with foul play and asks Nola to uncover the truth. But even as she investigates who wanted the politician dead, another poisoned body is found—and Aunt Sarah is the police’s number one suspect for murder. To prove her innocence, Nola will have to confront a killer whose ruthlessness endangers the entire city . . .
Franklin C. “Boss” Dillard has served the people of Agate, Illinois as a state legislature representative and is seeking reelection. Despite being a successful lawyer with connections on both sides of the law, Dillard has been unable to stop the rising wave of crime perpetrated by drug addicts afflicting the city, giving his political opponent enough ammunition to unseat him—and threatening the production of a movie being made in the city about the lives of Black people during the Great War.
Nola and her Aunt Sarah, a hoodoo practitioner, have discovered the source of the addictions. A transplanted Texan named Dr. Eric Spyder has been peddling his “Wonder Tonic”, getting folks hooked, and charging them a premium for the additional doses needed to “adjust” to the medicine’s effects. Aunt Sarah hopes to conjure a cure for Spyder’s concoction, publicly calling him out as a dangerous quack.
Then “Boss” Dillard is found dead, supposedly the victim of an opium overdose. His widow believes he met with foul play and asks Nola to uncover the truth. But even as she investigates who wanted the politician dead, another poisoned body is found—and Aunt Sarah is the police’s number one suspect for murder. To prove her innocence, Nola will have to confront a killer whose ruthlessness endangers the entire city . . .
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