Rating: 
Summary: Of Mice and Bigotry ...
Review: .
... An Archie Bunker-esque tour of "the New South."Have Jackson Lucien Yarbrough, the brown-haired, blue-eyed, blue-blooded Caucasian governor-elect of the great state of Mississippi and Page, his blue eyed, blond haired, former Ole Miss Homecoming Queen, Caucasian wife, just given birth to a bouncing black baby boy? This novel, by retired physician Charles Smithdeal, reads like a John Grisham legal thriller, with undertones of Faulknerian Southern Gothic and some biting satire a la Alice Randall's "The Wind Done Gone." Poor Page: shunned by her Garden Club: "Natchez 2001: Where the Old South Still Lives," kicked out of the Junior League, beleaguered by the Klan, because of the unseemliness of it all! What will her Aunt Belle, called "Auntie Bellum" to those near and dear, think? (At least she didn't commit the sin of wearing white shoes after Labor Day!) Will this preclude Lucien and Page's daughter from being coronated the Queen of the annual Confederate Pageant? A rollicking indictment of the vestiges of the Old South in the "New South," Dr. Smithdeal keeps the reader turning the pages!
Rating: 
Summary: For me... educational
Review: A page turner and easy read with a satisfying ending. I enjoyed learning about the history, landscape and mindset of the South's upper crust society. I liked the strength of Page who bridged the gap between upper class White society and African American discrimination. I appreciated her gradual realization that, while she 'did not' discriminate, she had a white mentality that affected her view of black people. It was good to see her experience racial discrimination first hand. Overall though, I felt that characters weren't always very well developed (I mean, what did Page ever see in that Governor puke), dialog was unnatural and weak, and while the ending was satisfying, it wrapped up into the nice little package that I predicted halfway through the book but with one surprise.
Rating:
Summary: For me... educational
Review: A page turner and easy read with a satisfying ending. I enjoyed learning about the history, landscape and mindset of the South's upper crust society. I liked the strength of Page who bridged the gap between upper class White society and African American discrimination. I appreciated her gradual realization that, while she 'did not' discriminate, she had a white mentality that affected her view of black people. It was good to see her experience racial discrimination first hand. Overall though, I felt that characters weren't always very well developed (I mean, what did Page ever see in that Governor puke), dialog was unnatural and weak, and while the ending was satisfying, it wrapped up into the nice little package that I predicted halfway through the book but with one surprise.
Rating:
Summary: Part John Grisham, Part Sidney Sheldon
Review: Charles Smithdeal has bravely traveled into territory that John Grisham has all but staked as his own in the past decade: the Southern courtroom. Smithdeal's novel, "Without Sin," begins as the Page Yarbrough, wife of Mississippi governor elect Lucien Yarbrough gives birth to a biracial baby. The ensuing legal maneuverings and underlying mystery (how has Page, who maintains that she has been faithful to her husband, given birth to a biracial child)keep the book moving full speed ahead. I read the entire book in one day. A blurb on the front jacket from author Leonard Goldberg promises that we "won't predeict the ending--never in a million years." To Smithdeal's credit, he does pull off an incredible and satsifying finale in the courtroom. He even manages to make credible a couple of coincidences, which seem less contrived in the smalltown setting. Smithdeal, a retired doctor, has carved a nice beginning here in what could become his own literary niche: the Southern medical/legal drama.
Rating:
Summary: An ok book with a lot of racial slurs
Review: I felt that the plot of this book was ok. The main thing about this book that I didn't like were all the racial slurs and comments that the charecters would say. I liked the ending and how they showed the truth in the courtroom in front of everyone.
Rating:
Summary: An ok book with a lot of racial slurs
Review: I felt that the plot of this book was ok. The main thing about this book that I didn't like were all the racial slurs and comments that the charecters would say. I liked the ending and how they showed the truth in the courtroom in front of everyone.
Rating:
Summary: What a Surprise!
Review: I love mysteries and this is one of the best ones I have ever read. I usually know the "who done it" way before I did in this one, and the last twist was a total surprise. I was on page 305 before I knew whose child it was and as I said, the last twist surprised me.
Rating: 
Summary: I Don't Get It
Review: I've read well over a hundred books published during the past year, most of them mysteries/suspense/thrillers and the like. Without any hesitation I would rate WITHOUT SIN as the best of that number. It's a lot more than a "genre" story, it's a penetrating analysis of one woman's mind and the mental set of the entire class she belonged to. Terrific, terrific, terrific!
Rating: 
Summary: WHAT COLOR IS LOVE?
Review: Set in 1999-2001, Page Yarbrough is living in a sheltered, genteel southern world reminicent of the antebellum era. Born in 1969 and motherless by age 3, Page and her sister are doted on by their father and housekeeper. The housekeeper nurses her own son William and Page's younger sister as they are close in age. Page prides herself on not being a bigot. Loved and nurtured by her housekeeper and playmate to William, Page feels that she does not discriminate against people who aren't white. She marries Jackson Lucien Yarbrough, a powerful southern politician. Their daughter Cindy is born in 1994 and son, Jackson Adams ("Adam") Yarbrough II, named after Lucien's father is born 10/6/01. Adam, a beautiful healthy baby is indeed a surprise bundle of joy. He is black, beautiful and full term. Lucien and Page claim they cannot possibly be the parents to this child. Lucien storms into the nursery and demands that the nurses on duty disrobe each child so he can "find his white son." After several weeks and DNA tests are conducted, Page is genetically determined to be Adam's mother. Lucien is not the father, so the curtain rises on the mystery stage. Who IS Adam's father? How could Page give birth to a black child when the only man she was ever with was Lucien? A cruel, vindictive and even racist man, Lucien divorces Page, humiliates her publicly, strips her of her belongings and even secures custody of Cindy. The town bigots unceremoniously drop Page from the genteel southern organizations she belongs to such as the Garden Club. Page is unable to get a job; she moves into a small place with her childhood housekeeper and Adam. After months of suffering, an unlikely messenger comes through like the Cavalry for Page. She is directed to a young, aggressive and dynamic attorney who takes on her case. The legal battles, the evidence and the list of motives is long and very satisfying. Was Adam conceived as part of a political conspiracy? Was Page inseminated? If so, who was responsible for this? Who is Adam's father? Bloodlines, blurring of colors along racial lines and some surpise witnesses and references to related cases make for a brilliant and highly satisfying book. I can't recommend this highly enough. I suggested it to someone else who enjoyed it as much as I did. This is a brilliant work from a very promising author. Smithdeal is off to a soaring start!
Rating:
Summary: Great start but loses steam quickly.
Review: The book started our great. But after 4 chapters, I was bothered by the prevelant prejudice slurs - racial, social, physical. Even the "hero" makes these comments about a black baby, overweight man, pregant woman, and people who "wear white shoes after Labor Day". These comments combined with the lack of character development and predictable events made the book nearly impossible to finish. Granted the end was a mild surprise but after they tested everybody's DNA for the countless time and the court battle was 50 pages too long, I just didn't care anymore.
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