Richard W. Wise, Author

"Redlined" by Richard W. Wise, is a gripping suspense thriller that approaches its subject on the many levels of city politics, big money power brokers, banks, cultural institutions such as the Catholic Church in an old Boston neighborhood, and most importantly, what happens at the human level of family, friends and neighbors trying to protect their dreams. As an Alinsky-trained community organizer, the author is well-suited to tell this tale based on true events and well-researched details that make this novel exciting to read.
When "redlining," the betrayal of a community of homeowners and small business enterprises to make way for high-end development, threatens to overwhelm Boston's Jamaica Plain in 1974, community organizer and Marine combat veteran Jedediah Flynt steps in to turn the tide in favor of the people who live there; people who have been increasingly discouraged about their investments in a place they know of as home.
As the neighborhood housing market crashes and the quality of life deteriorates in Jamaica Plain, abandoned buildings are mysteriously being burned down as though in some systematic plan. Flynt, and his dedicated young organizer, Sandy Morgan, set up a watch on nearby empty buildings in an attempt to stop the destruction, or at least to determine what nefarious plot is afoot. But the investigation turns tragic when Sandy, in the midst of an arson in progress, is killed in the building fire. The incident mobilizes Flynt to swear he will find those responsible and avenge Morgan's death. It is with the inspired aid of another young woman, Alex Jordan, newly hired for research, that Flynt goes deep into a true-life conspiracy to ruin the lives of those who live in Jamaica Plain. The conspirators involved will stop at nothing, including murder, and Flynt will also need to rely on ex-Marine buddies to get the job done.
"Redlined" creates a wonderful look at the history of community organizing in all its early development. Much of the suspense in the first chapters of the novel outline the strategies and tactics meant to preserve the rights and lifetime investments of homeowners and businesses. They are all unwittingly pit against an elaborate web of corruption involving the greed, ambition and indifference of politicians, bureaucrats, elitist bankers, high ranking Catholic clergy, well-heeled grifters and the Chinese Triad. But Flynt and other lead organizers use the law, the solidarity of the people to act together, and the news media to expose the truth. Hope and social justice among the entire neighborhood will not be crushed.
But with every new accomplishment, every new insight, the forces of evil become increasingly aware they have underestimated the talents of Flynt and Jordan. In one move after another, including some daring espionage, Flynt gets closer and closer to who killed Sandy. Before their huge investments and reputations are damaged any further, the forces of evil narrow their sights on the problem and the showdown must come. Much like a chess game where the player who knows in advance what move to make next, "Redlined" maintains an edge of realism that will keep you guessing until the very end, and wondering with insider savvy, about the world at large.
Richard W. Wise is the author of two previous books, bestseller "Secrets of the Gem Trade: The Connoisseur's Guide to Precious Gemstones" (2003 with a second edition published in 2016) and "The French Blue," a historical novel (2010) and winner of a 2011 International Book Award in Historical Fiction.
 
 

"Wise (The French Blue) highlights a predatory housing practice—redlining—in this taut thriller set in 1974 Boston. Sandy Morgan, a neighborhood organizer working for the Jamaica Plain Social Action Committee, was helping to investigate a series of suspicious fires in abandoned properties in the area, until she was killed in an explosion caused by an arsonist in yet another vacant building. Morgan's death leads her boss, Jedediah Flynt, who's wracked with guilt, to redouble his efforts to find the people behind the arsons. Flynt is convinced that powerful people, who consider the neighborhood "too risky to do business with," have redlined it, choking off mortgages and insurance money. That policy "sets the stage for slumlords buying cheap for cash, racial steering and housing abandonment." Influential forces in the city oppose Flynt's idealistic crusade, and Morgan's successor, attractive Harvard student Alex Jordan, also winds up in jeopardy. Wise combines an accessible explanation of the nature and impact of redlining with a page-turning narrative. Fans of suspense fiction with a social conscience will be pleased."  Publisher's Weekly

Murder, Redlining, and the Fight for Jamaica Plain
Kenneth Reardon reviews "Redlined: A novel of Boston" by Richard W. Wise. Brunswick House Press, June 2020, 338 pp., $14.75 (Paperback).

By Kenneth M. Reardon -

June 29, 2020
"An organizer, eager to discover who is responsible for the destruction of her Boston neighborhood of Jamaica Plain, stakes out a vacant building that arsonists are expected to hit. Shortly after 2 a.m., a car stops and its passengers enter the structure. Minutes later they return to the vehicle and speed off into the night. Curious as to what took place inside the building, community organizer Sandy Morgan enters one of its open apartments. Within moments, the arsonists' timer triggers a violent blast that hurls her body against a brick wall, killing her instantly.

With a deep understanding that's largely based upon his experience working as a community organizer in Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood, Richard W. Wise tells a powerful story of the urban development wars that took place at a time when powerful developers, financiers, politicians, and nonprofit leaders promoting upscale place-making in pursuit of "trickle-down benefits" were pitted against poor and working-class residents struggling to preserve their neighborhoods. In the first few pages of Redlined: A Novel of Boston, Wise seizes the attention of readers eager to know who caused Sandy Morgan's death. He then quickly exposes them to an epic battle over the future of American cities being waged in low-income communities throughout the U.S. during the last quarter of the 20th century.

This semi-autobiographical novel describes how a small group of community activists, working through their churches, compelled the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to require banks to disclose where they were making loans. The clear pattern of discrimination revealed by the data subsequently helps this network of faith-based organizations negotiate a major reinvestment agreement with local lenders.

The book is set in the early 1970s when state and federal transportation officials proposed the construction of a new highway to ease the commute of South Shore residents traveling into downtown Boston. During the land acquisition phase of the Southwest Expressway Project, which featured the widespread use of eminent domain, an unlikely coalition of neighborhood activists, historic preservationists, urban environmentalists, and mass transit advocates came together to defeat the initiative, placing the future of the neighborhoods located along its right-of-way up for grabs. Wise focuses Redlined on the fierce struggle that took place over Jamaica Plain's redevelopment. Here, a large number of vacant lots and abandoned buildings remained following the cancellation of the highway project, which discouraged local lenders from providing mortgages in the area, in turn causing real estate values to plummet and many property owners to abandon the community.

In Redlined, powerful real estate interests with extensive financial and political ties quietly assemble land within Jamaica Plain for a mega-project, using campaign donations, charitable gifts, and illegal bribes to secure the support of local officials—and threats of violence and arson to encourage residents to abandon the neighborhood. Early in the story, readers are introduced to a determined group of citizens who mobilize to challenge these efforts. Along the way, Wise exposes readers to municipal officials committed to the machine politics of the James Michael Curley era, religious leaders more interested in their Swiss bank accounts than in saving souls, and Vietnam vets willing to operate outside of the law to defend their neighborhood. While some readers may find Wise's characters and rapidly changing subplots challenging to follow, few readers familiar with the rough and tumble nature of urban development in Boston and its tribal-like municipal politics will be among them.

Redlined: A Novel of Boston would be a great addition to the summer reading list of anyone interested in Boston's social history or the struggles of citizen organizations resisting displacement and gentrification—problems that have gotten significantly worse in recent years despite the passage of the Fair Housing, Home Mortgage Disclosure, and Community Reinvestment acts. It is an informative but exciting whodunit thriller that tells a compelling story, with a few creative liberties, of how a small group of Jamaica Plain residents prevented an expressway from destroying their community, pioneered anti-redlining policies that stabilized their neighborhood, and converted the Southwest Expressway's right-of-way into verdant and heavily-used greenway that transformed Jamaica Plain into one of Boston' premier, and increasingly exclusive, neighborhoods— something Wise and his organizing colleagues might have found difficult to imagine in 1975.

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