Keyshia and Clyde

June 9, 2008
What’s a girl to do when she gets the short end of the stick? Seek revenge!
Keyshia and Clyde
Treasure E. Blue
. Ballantine/One World
, $14 paper (368p) ISBN 978-0-345-49329-3

Keyshia Simmons, abandoned and brutalized by nearly every person who was supposed to care for her, turns to drugs and sex in Blue’s tawdry new novel. Unlikely help comes from Clyde Barker, a stickup man who inadvertently rescues her from the clutches of a violent drug-dealer. A romance blossoms, and when the dead dealer’s associates demand restitution, Keyshia and Clyde go on a crime spree to raise the cash, all the while confronting the demons of their past and wishing they could go on the straight-and-narrow. Clyde gets collared for a crime he didn’t commit, and it takes Keyshia a few years (she earns a law degree) to prove his innocence and help him get justice for his wronged parents. By the close of this predictable tale, the good guys win and the bad guys get what’s coming to them.