Bonaventura Mysteries

BOOK ONE: JITTERBUG

(These two books are historical fiction with fictional characters in accurate settings.)

Vincente and Julietta Bonaventura are southern Italian farmers from the bayou. Vince is a fine tailor and plans to go north when his wife dies of Cholera soon after the birth of his precious daughter, Julie. He takes the baby on this long journey towards prosperity. Set in the 1950's -- the south was in the violent turmoil of state-run racial segregation. Vince was a light-skinned brown man often inadvertently passing for white, his daughter was light as well. Italians are bi-racial. So, his struggle to find his way north is what this novel is about. This is actually historical fiction. This book includes an early history of the DEA and the FBI, the sub-plot brings us into the era of the small local southern white drug cartels often made legal by their own judiciary and federal connections. This is a non-graphic series but it is historically accurate.

BOOK TWO: TIE DYE

Tie Dye is set in the '60s after the passing of the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act and in the middle of the struggle against the Draft. Julietta Bonaventura is a teenager and ready to march down Michigan Avenue for women's issues or anything that she would like to protect. Grant Park is the focal point of many political rallies. Vince is prosperous and has his own tailoring business in downtown Chicago.