If 6 Were 9

In the wee hours of the morning, a phone call awakens Clay Robinette, once a disgraced reporter, now a happily married, happily tenured black professor. The caller is Reggie Brogus, a famous black militant who, after a mysterious seven-year exile, remade himself as a fire-breathing conservative professor. There's a dead body in Reggie's office and he's sure it's the work of government agents looking to frame him for his radical past. He needs Clay's help and trusts Clay's wry sense of humor and famous cool head to get him out of trouble. But Clay, dragged out of his bed into the winter night, recognizes the victim -- Jennifer Wolfsheim, aka Pirate Jenny, Clay's student and, for a brief time, his mistress. Knowing he too could be implicated in Jenny's death, Clay tries to cover up his knowledge of the murder; he gives Reggie a ride out of town, goes home, and gets back into bed as though the whole episode were a nightmare. But when he wakes up in the morning, his life slowly but surely begins to fall apart. Dragged into the nvestigation in spite of himself, Clay knows he must unmask the killer before he becomes the prime suspect. Is Reggie guilty after all? Is the murder indeed linked to the FBI and a long-ago counterintelligence operation? Or is the killer someone with a sterling reputation and a hidden sadistic streak?

Part whodunit, part conspiracy thriller, part social satire, If 6 Were 9 is a funny, fast-paced novel filled with vibrant characters, unexpected plot twists, and provocative ideas about the complexities of race and politics in America.


Genre: Literary Fiction