THE JAZZ FLOWER

About the Book

The Jazz Flower is a follow-up to Forbidden Circles, which ends with Nora Johnson and Douglas Stills expecting their first child. In The Jazz Flower, the child is born. Later, the couple has two more children. But it is their first child, Rosa, who takes center stage.

Rosa Johnson Stills grows and blooms into a beautiful mocha-hued jazz singer in 1930s and '40s Washington, D.C. During those years, Rosa challenges her light-skinned grandmother, Lilly, who low rates her dark skin color and her jazz dream. Rosa also fights her rival, socialite Iris Haywood, in an endless effort to possess her first love, Attorney Alan Covington. Because of a long-ago pact their families made, Alan is pledged to Iris. And Iris will never let him go. Eventually, Rosa relocates to New York City to take a singing job at The Blue Phoenix nightclub and to try to forget Alan. In New York, Rosa dates Jackson Parker, a racketeer. But Alan is in her arms whenever he's in New York on business-even after he and Iris are married. Parker threatens to kill Rosa if he catches her with another man. Set in the Swing and Bebop eras of jazz music, The Jazz Flower unfolds prejudice, obsession, and murder, as it transports readers from D.C. to New York, to Paris, France, on its way to a riveting conclusion.

About the Author

A native of Washington, D.C., Vee Garcia majored in English and Literature at the University of the District of Columbia and at the University of South Florida, in Tampa. Following a brief foray into magazine writing, she wrote fiction and saw a few of her short stories published. Soon she wrote longer works of fiction. Her earlier published novels include Forbidden Circles and Whatever it Takes. The Jazz Flower is her third novel. She is currently writing her fourth book. Vee Garcia lives in Florida with family and friends.