The Secret of Magic

November 4, 2013
When African-American WWII veteran Joe Howard Wilson, returning home to Mississippi in 1945, is killed in what appears to be a racially motivated crime, his family’s former employer writes to legendary NAACP lawyer Thurgood Marshall for help. Johnson’s spirited sophomore novel (following The Air Between Us) explores racial boundaries in 1940s Mississippi through the eyes of Regina Robichard, a young black lawyer from Harlem sent to investigate the murder in Marshall’s stead. Upon arriving in Revere, Miss., Regina discovers that, although the stories that she has heard of overt racism and strictly enforced Jim Crow laws are true, the reality is much more complicated. Unlike New York, where “races rarely mingled”, here they lived “right on top of each other, constantly traipsing in and out of one another’s lives.” Joe Howard’s father, Willie Willie, has taught generations of children, both black and white, the secrets of the surrounding forests. Yet many of these children, now adults, are the very people who want to sweep his son’s death under the carpet. Inspired by the story of African-American WWII veteran Isaac Woodard, who was blinded by a South Carolina policeman following his service, , this novel presents a spirited portrayal of the postwar South, though heavy-handed storytelling keeps the characters from fully coming alive. Agent: Harvey Klinger, Harvey Klinger Inc.

Starred review from December 1, 2013
Mississippi-based author Johnson's second novel (The Air Between Us, 2008). The book is about a young black lawyer facing the complexities of race relations in the 1946 South. It offers a somewhat romantic but emotionally affecting take on the period after World War II, when returning African-American soldiers were no longer willing to be treated as inferior citizens and the NAACP was laying groundwork for the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Regina Robichard is a Columbia Law School grad working for the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund in New York City when her mentor, Thurgood Marshall--whose saintly portrayal would be wearying if he were more actively involved in the story--receives a request to investigate the death of decorated serviceman Joe Howard Wilson, killed on his way home to Revere, Miss. The request has come from Mary P. Calhoun, a white woman in Revere who employs Wilson's father, Willie Willie. Regina, whose own father was lynched in Omaha, Neb., before she was born, gets Marshall to send her to Revere. The case interests her in part because she recognizes that M.P. Calhoun authored her favorite childhood novel, about three children, two white and one black, sharing adventures in a magical forest under the tutelage of a wise black man. The novel, which includes an unsolved murder, was banned in Mississippi, but Mary, who may remind readers of Harper Lee, lives on in Revere as a member of the landed old-money gentry. Staying in a cottage Mary built for Willie Willie in her backyard, Regina soon realizes that the white citizens, including Mary herself, seem to be protecting the obvious murderer. But motives and black-white interdependency prove more complex than Regina expected. Most confusing for Regina is her own reaction to Mary Calhoun, her idol and nemesis--and possibly her friend. Passionate but never didactic, Johnson wisely allows the novel's politics to play second fiddle to the intimate, nuanced drama of the young black Yankee and middle-aged white Southerner in this provocative story about race in America that becomes a deeply felt metaphor for all human relationships.

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October 15, 2013
Opening the mail for her mentor and employer, Thurgood Marshall, at the NAACP office in New York, Regina Robichard is captivated by a letter from famous southern author M. P. Calhoun, asking for an investigation of the murder of a young black man, Joe Howard Wilson. Robichard is a fan of Calhoun, having read her book about a magical forest and an unsolved murder. As a stand-in for Marshall, Robichard travels to Revere, Mississippi, to find out the truth behind the murder of Wilson, who was among scores of black men returning from the war, unwilling to put up with the humiliations of racism. What she discovers are parallels between life in Revere and Calhoun's book. How much of the book is real, and how does it connect to the murder? Inspired by her grandfather, who fought in WWII and was a huge admirer of Thurgood Marshall, and her own admiration of Marshall colleague Constance Baker Motley, Johnson (The Air between Us, 2008) offers a completely engaging southern gothic with unforgettable characters in this fictionalized account of a pivotal NAACP case from the 1940s.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)