The Work-Husband Caper

The Work-Husband Caper by Rod Palmer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
The story-
At Emerge call center to be a Black woman is to be Queen. Melody, Phyllis, Pepper, and Tiffany cultivated a female lead regime of black women. They supported, mentored and promoted black women. All but Tiffany yearned for success professionally and personally.  They were all on track until Dominic reached his tolerance threshold. He was a bitter conspiracy theorist that wore his hate for the black woman like a badge. I could not help, but to think of all the instances in today's society where this is on display daily. (sigh) But, I digress. Dominic's failed attempt to bully a promotion out of the ladies leads him to recruit a few "casanova's to help take down the melanin queendom. There is betrayal, blackmail, verbal abuse, workplace rage, and death.  The storyline should be classified as romantic suspense as it had a few errors of romance, but mostly it was a suspense-driven novel.  It was different, entertaining and moved swiftly.

The characters-
I did not connect with any of the female characters. But oddly enough, I could with Dominic. He was the most developed of them all. His character while presented in one facet i.e. a bitter manic. His character had texture. This also made him my favorite.  I won't even go into his love Denzel movies and using his monologues in everyday life. He was comical in those moments.  The other characters were not as layered. My least favorite was the  Jason character. I found him to be disturbing. Whereas many found his persistence in his initial meeting with Melody endearing, I found it to be over the top and a creepy. the initial banter went from cute to suspect.  The whole scene with the internet date was over the top. Maybe I have watched entirely too much ID TV.

The technical-
The plot was strong. The storyline was well thought out. I would have like smoother transitions between scenes and more character development. Also, I believe the overuse of "italicise" to emphasis words was used incorrectly in several instances.

All in all, this was a good read that captured what the call center life can be like.  Trust me. I speak from experience. I'll leave you with the most poignant line from this novel.

“Strength can be a liability-make you endure things simply because you can.”

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