If 6 Were 9: A Militant Mystery by Jake Lamar

From the Publisher

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.

Publishers Weekly

With a well-received memoir (Bourgeois Blues) and two thought-provoking novels (the political thriller The Last Integrationist and the mainstream Close to the Bone) to his credit, Lamar brings the same serious concerns to his first mystery. After an incident that leads to his disgrace as a journalist, black writer Clay Robinette retreats to a post at Ohio's Arden University, a happy marriage and twin girls. His only misstep is a short affair with Pirate Jenny, a pretty student. When Jenny is strangled to death, the initial suspicion falls on another professor, Reggie Brogus, a former famous black radical now turned ultraright political shill. Reggie amply demonstrates his guilt by fleeing town. It might all have been just a bad dream for Clay, but his infidelity is exposed and Reggie's political persuasion comes into serious question. Part mystery, part academic satire and part socioracial examination, this novel never quite satisfies on any level. Since Reggie evolves into the novel's central character, the real mystery might be whether he's a true revolutionary or a secret government operative. Either way he's a wildly overblown character study. Equally implausible is the laughably cartoon Britishness of Roger Pym-Smithers, Clay's confidante and the husband of one of Reggie's more vocal critics on campus. Clay's character lacks definition, Reggie and Roger probably have too much, and poor Jenny is soon all but forgotten in a narrative hamstrung by a few too many laudable intentions. (Jan. 30) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

In this literary mystery--a breakout novel for Lamar (Close to the Bone)?--successful black professor Clay Robinette confronts his revolutionary past--and becomes a murder suspect. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

New York Times Book Review - Gavin McNett

Jake Lamar's new novel, If 6 Were 9, is a page-turner of a murder mystery with a clear, breezy style. The book is also a wicked black comedy in both senses of the phrase -- it's both caustically funny and a shrewd take on racial politics.

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