A Spy in the Struggle: A Riveting Must-Read Novel of Suspense

It was a A Good Mystery. I really enjoyed the mystery parts of this book. The title sure sums it up well. Yolanda had a tough case, being the spy at RBG (on orders of the FBI) even though she is a lawyer and a rookie agent. There is more than meets the eye though and there are major cover ups going on that need to be figured out. This case opens up Yolanda's eyes to truths and parts of life that she had avoided in the pursuit of security and success and I enjoyed the journey though I think the romance bits were not needed in such blatant detail as it detracted (at least for me) from the rest of the very interesting story. I liked Yolanda as a character who was strong and able to stand for the right thing, even when she is being shot at and can still land on her feet. Her and Jimmy are cute too. I think this was a good book and if the author writes more mysteries then I would probably read them.

Yolanda Vance is a young African American recently graduated lawyer. Yolanda has had to single-mindedly strive and achieve to survive in a world that has left her essentially orphaned. In her first job as an attorney at a prestigious corporate New York law firm, she is asked to shred documents in the middle of a raid by the FBI. The firm is guilty of securities fraud and Yolanda does the right thing and becomes a whistleblower. She is offered a position with the FBI, which she thinks will be a desk job. To her surprise, Yolanda is sent undercover to infiltrate an eco- and social justice activist group in California, who are taking on a large energy corporation with a defense contract. The activist group is seen as a threat by the FBI, but Yolanda quickly realizes that all is not that it seems and begins to question who the real criminals are. Yolanda starts as a narrow, focused and, in some ways, naive character who grows and empowers herself throughout the story. A Spy in the Struggle explores a lot of interesting and relevant issues such as how racial, community, environmental and social justice all intersect. Like Yolanda, we, as readers, are led to contemplate and question what we see in our world and investigate what is occurring beneath the surface.

thriller, multicultural, politics, social-issues, socioeconomics, dishonest-business-practices, self-worth-issues***** A driven woman lawyer with a multicultural history and heritage winds up working for the FBI and gets transferred to the iffy neighborhood where she went to high school (before college and Harvard Law) on the FBI's agenda. She is there in her first (pretty much involuntary) undercover assignment with an aggressive but law minding group of Black students who want to get justice, especially from a dishonest pseudo-ecological business that does more than the usual amount of lying and fooling the public, government, and NGOs. Throughout this experience she comes to face and evaluate her past, her goals, and her personal identity. She also comes to a personal closeness with a man from her past. I don't want to go into more detail because I want you to READ IT. I requested and received a free ebook copy from Kensington Books via NetGalley. Thank you!