Octobia May likes to hang out in cemeteries and have conversations with the residents. She developed an affinity for the dead, after having died once herself during heart surgery. Octobia lives with her Aunt Shuma, who is determined not to over-protect her like her parents do. Aunt Shuma owns and operates a boardinghouse full of interesting guests. She is a feminist and a proud black woman whose views are way ahead of her time and she is raising Octobia unconstrained by the social morays of the day.  Aunt Shuma wants to own more boarding houses, but banks don’t give loans to single Negro women in 1953. She teaches Octobia about the injustices of sexism, racism, segregation, and discrimination and keeps her informed on the latest efforts of civil rights activists. 

Octobia wants to be writer and has a fertile imagination. She believes that one of the borders, Mr. Davenport, is a vampire. After she arms herself with crosses, iron spikes, and reeking of garlic, which she eats constantly, she investigates Mr. Davenport. He turns out not to be a vampire but a thief and possibly a murderer. With her friends, Jonah and Bessie, Octobia investigates Mr. Davenport and unravels the mystery of his crimes. When she gets too close to the truth, Davenport frames Aunt Shuma. Now Octobia must prove the crimes of Davenport and his accomplice, the local banker, to get her aunt out of jail.

Sharon Flake creates a vivid African-American community. She seamlessly weaves in the sexism and racism that informs Octobia’s world and tragically impacts the lives of both the villains and heroes of this story.

Octobia is a great character. I enjoyed reading about a junior African-American sleuth and would love to see her in another crime-solving adventure.