Not Exactly Stealin'

Not Exactly Stealin', the first in the series, is a dark comedy about ancestor worship, rare Southern antiquities, and good old-fashioned greed. It focuses on a 130-year-old diary of a black freedwoman, and features five female characters: Dale Ralston, one-time set designer for the New York fashion industry now married to a corrupt state politician; Rannie Ralston, Dale's sister-in-law, a hard-charging lawyer; Moira, Dale's other sister-in-law, a dreamy, overgrown child who lives in the haze of history; Mary Canty Ralston, Dale's mother-in-law, an avaricious lush; and, Tamzie, their maid who observes, records, and becomes dangerously tangled in theft and murder. These novels describe Charleston before it became totally infested by rich Yankees. Large shabby pockets remained ungentrified-old families lived in old houses and maintained old rituals.