Birmingham, Alabama…Not So Gentile South

Beach in Lower Alabama

I’ve visited Birmingham, Alabama a couple of times and enjoyed the trip. One word of caution, though. It’s not a city full of magnolia trees and beautiful women in long gowns with crinoline skirts and Southern Belle hats. Today’s Birmingham is in every way a metropolis, complete with headquarters for a wide variety of industries along with the Vulcan Statue, a reminder of the city’s roots in the iron and steel industries. As you travel outside of Birmingham you’ll see some beautiful countryside, as well, moving into rolling hills, and interstates that will carry you down to LA…Lower Alabama and the beautiful Gulf Coast.

We haven’t spent that much time in Birmingham, though, being graduates of Auburn University which is further south in the state and an arch rival. Alabama as a state is pretty well divided and you are either an Auburn fan or a member of the Alabama faithful. We aren’t that locked into it, being that we both grew up in Georgia and our rivalries were different, but still, with our Auburn Alumni stickers on the car we aren’t exactly the most welcome visitors to the city. Yes, there are people who take it that seriously.

Ceramic Auburn Shoes

Recently I had a chance to read a book that takes place in Birmingham, Gone Too Far by Debra Webb. It was much closer to being a reflection of the current Birmingham, complete with hard hitting detectives, a drug cartel, and slick politicians. The book was extremely well written and enjoyable; one that would have you on the edge of your seat at different parts and certainly reluctant to put it down to go do the things you “ought to be doing.” It features a hard hitting female police detective who is recently divorced, her partner who is tough but with a soft spot, and a cast of other characters who are richly developed and varied.

There’s the former detective who went undercover and now suffers from amnesia. She was missing for a year, and can’t get that time back, no matter how she tries. Police work is impossible for her, as she lives on a knife’s edge, running her own small detective business. There’s also her father, a by-the-book DEA agent who is estranged from his daughter, a mayor who has a smooth way about her, and additional police personnel who create conflict as two cases collide.

It’s a book I recommend to anyone who likes solid police detective fiction. Click HERE to learn more, it will take you to my full review. This book has just enough of everything to be interesting on several different levels. Go ahead, read the review, and see what you think.

Now it’s time for me to get back to some other things, but not until after I put an Auburn picture in this post. Sure, I know Auburn isn’t in Birmingham and that’s where the book occurs, but it’s in Alabama, I’m an Auburn graduate, so why not? Till next time I’ll simply say War Eagle and Happy Reading.