The Dying Ground by Nichelle D. Tramble

From the Publisher

Billy: dead. Felicia: missing.

None of the words made sense together, but the doom I'd expected announced itself. I felt iron in my mouth, like I'd gargled with pennies, a taste like blood, a bitter taste that always followed bad news.

The setting is Oakland, 1989; the crack epidemic is at its height and turf wars are brewing. Maceo Redfield, currently on hiatus from college, is walking a fine line between respectability and involvement in Oakland's drug underworld. As he waits in the neighborhood barbershop, one of his closest childhood friends, Holly Ford, brings him the news of the murder of Billy Crane, the third member of their childhood trio and a successful drug dealer. Felicia, Billy's girlfriend and Maceo's true love, is on the run and suspected of setting up the hit. As he searches for Felicia and the answer to the mystery of Billy's murder, Maceo is drawn deeper into a world in which dealers, players, and interlopers, obeying a code of honor all their own, engage in a deadly game to capture the heart of Oakland. When Maceo uncovers the truth about Billy, the story builds to a terrifying and painful climax.

Washington Post - Jabari Asim

The author's sure sense of structure, keen knowledge of male behavior and exquisite sense of pacing all contribute to this novel's overall excellence. I read it fast, and I was sorry when the last page appeared.

Chicago Tribune - Dick Adler

Her setting—the scarred streets of Oakland in 1989—leaps to life with the force of recovered memory: Even if you weren't there, you'll think you were. Her lead character, a young man named Maceo Redfield with a remarkable talent for baseball that might just offer him a way out if he can tear away all the roots that hold him, is one of the most satisfying and frustrating figures in recent fiction…Tramble's writing is multidimensional, muscular and poetic, capturing the voices of African-Americans of many ages and backgrounds without slipping into pretense or parody. And her story has the depth and resonance of true legend: a modern myth filled with age-old pain and tears.

Library Journal

This debut mystery in the Striver's Row imprint features Maceo Redfield, a disillusioned baseball star who has dropped out of college. Investigating the murder of a childhood chum, Maceo finds himself in the thick of the Oakland drug wars of 1989. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

Internet Book Watch

In 1989 Oakland, teenager Maceo Albert Bouchaund has everything, coming from an upper middle class family. His grandfather Albert is considered as one of the city's patriarchs. He attends college at nearby Berkley though he is currently visiting at home. He also is a fine baseball player in spite of being small for the sport. However, Maceo's world changes when he learns that someone put a bullet into the head of his childhood buddy Billy Crane, a major local player in the lucrative drug trafficking. The murder of Billy is not a shocker as dealers are routinely killed in the competitive quest for customers. When Maceo learns that Billy's girlfriend Flea vanished, he decides he must do something because she is the unrequited love of his life. As he begins to investigate Billy's death and search for Flea, Maceo finds the enticing side of the drug world calling to him like a sexy siren. Will he fall to its lure in spite of his heritage? The Dying Ground is quite a coup as first time novelist Nichelle D. Tramble provides more than a very good urban amateur sleuth tale. The story line centers on the full picture, including glamour, of the drug industry that still holds on to many American communities. Maceo is a wonderful protagonist, struggling with the thin line between his moral upbringing and the instant gratification of the fool's gold drug world. Though many readers will need to adjust to the accents of the secondary cast, this approach provides a real feel to Oakland in the first year of what now seems like ancient history of papa Bush's administration.

Product Details

• Table of Contents
• Reading Group Guide
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Table of Contents

Reading Group Guide

1. The Oakland of Daddy Al's youth is much different than that of his old age; the opportunity that drew him to the West has been replaced with a drug-fueled violence. Yet in some sense, the freedom and hope of old Oakland still exists in the illicit world of drugs. How does the younger generation appropriate and transform this spirit? What is the response of Daddy Al's generation to this change?

2. Like many places where the law ceases to have meaning, Oakland, and its young in particular, relies on an alternate, unspoken idea of morality and honor. Describe this code of ethics. What are the rules? Do they differ between the drug world and the larger community? What are the contradictions between these rules and the law?

3. When Daddy Al tells Maceo about the tragic life and death of his first wife, Elizabeth, what is he saying about his idea of justice? About its redemptive power? Is this a warning to Maceo?

4. Maceo's large, close-knit family nurtured him from birth and provided a substitute family for many of his friends. Despite the strength of this family relationship, the ghost of Maceo's mother and father seem to exert an equally strong influence on him. What is this legacy? How does it affect him? How are Holly and Felicia affected by the mistakes of their parents?

5. Maceo's vivid dreams haunt him throughout the book; they function as premonitions as well as expressions of his true fears. It seems as if Maceo is wrestling his demons in these dreams, and it is here that we encounter Maceo's father and Billy Crane. What do these dreams tell us about Maceo? About his fears? His guilt?

6. As outsiders and insiders to Oakland, Alixe and Felicia arenear opposites, yet they represent Maceo's twin desires. "Alixe was what I wanted waiting for me on the other side, but I needed Felicia." What is Felicia's role in Maceo's life? What is Alixe's? How does Alixe view Maceo's world?

7. Despite the violence surrounding them, the residents of Oakland maintain a remarkable sense of community, as witnessed in Cutty's barbershop and during Billy Crane's funeral. Are these scenes realistic? Discuss how humor is used and expressed in this community.

8. Maceo and Holly view their participation in "the game" less as a choice than as a result of their personal history. Maceo claims he was "born in death, " and both men carry the sins of their parents close to their hearts. It is as if their parents and surroundings have created a future in which they have little choice. Discuss this notion of fate. Is it valid? How does it shape their decisions? Does it cause them to disregard the consequences of their actions?

9. Scottie, Maceo, and Daddy Al represent three generations of Oakland males; both of the men play the role of father figure — Daddy Al to Maceo and Maceo to Scottie. How do these relationships work? Is there any disappointment within them? What is each man teaching the younger?

10. For most of the book we see Felicia only through the eyes of others; how does Maceo's characterization of her differ from reality? After she returns to Oakland to avenge Billy's death, Felicia's brother accuses her of following the horrifying example of their father. Do you think this is true? How does she arrive at her startling, heartrending solution to Billy's death? Are her actions justified?

11. The Dying Ground charts Maceo's journey from the fringes of violence to its very center. He struggles to make this transition on his own terms, trying to stay true to the disparate beliefs of his family and friends. Is he successful? Does his love for and allegiance to Felicia redeem him? What does the future hold for him?

12. "From memory my gut knew that it would all disappear one way or another, and it had, one by one.... Some of the loss was my own doing, I couldn't argue that, but it all stemmed from the same place ... drugs." Tramble writes with a sense of ambivalence toward the Oakland drug world; she acknowledges its devastating effects but respects its power. The character of Alixe best reflects this view. What is her assessment of Oakland? Are there any heroes in this story? Do we, as readers, come to understand them?

13. "When you will survive if you fight quickly and perish if you do not, this is called the dying ground' (Sun Tzu). Explain Tramble's use of this quote in her title. What does it say about Oakland and its future?

14. "When you will survive if you fight quickly and perish if you do not, this is called the dying ground' (Sun Tzu). Explain Tramble's use of this quote in her title. What does it say about Oakland and its future?

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