Sunday’s Dinner

All summer the Russells have had something close to peace: the long table on Calumet Avenue full again every Sunday, the brothers counting off, a girl from Rockford learning where the forks go. Then, the morning after Sunday dinner, a young woman is found dead in the gangway between their house and Naomi’s, with a backwards moon drawn on her palm.

Only one person on Calumet Avenue signs her name with a moon.

Naomi is charged with murder. Ronelle, a public defender, will defend his sister. And the prosecutor assigned to put her away for life is his own brother.

From a federal cell, the woman who used to call the house every Sunday at four is still calling. She doesn’t need a weapon this time. She has the family’s secrets, and all the time in the world.

From a South Side gangway to the women’s division of the Cook County Jail to a frozen lakefront and a courtroom at 26th and California, Sunday’s Dinner is Book Seven in the Brother’s Keeper saga: a Black family crime thriller about five brothers who fight, joke, keep score and never leave one of their own behind. Read the series in order.

Five brothers. One sister. A trial that splits the table in two.