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Our
Town
Third Book May Be a Charm for Compton Native
Local author’s
legal thriller addresses gay sex, AIDS in the Black community
By
Cheryl Scott
Bulletin
Staff Writer
Murder
on the Down Low, a legal thriller written by Compton native Pamela
Samuels-Young and published by Harlequin Press, hasn’t yet hit
the shelves of bookstores.
But bookworms nationwide have reserved a place for it on their shelves.
The thriller, presales of which are soaring, has landed Samuels-Young a
top literary agent—and her fans aren’t the only ones who are
thrilled.
“Everyone is saying this could be my breakthrough novel,” Samuels-Young
told the Bulletin. “I can certainly feel a lot of excitement about
it. And having a well-respected agent increases my chances of landing
a book deal with a major publisher.”
Murder on the Down Low, Samuels-Young’s third release, incorporates
her firsthand knowledge of the local Black community.
The book explores a topic so controversial it probably scared off
major publishers, she said.
“It’s about HIV and AIDS among African-American women, the
fastest-growing segment of people with the virus,” she said. “The
title refers to men who claim to be heterosexual but engage in gay sex
as well. The
problem is widespread in the Black community and is thought to be
the cause of the increase in AIDS and HIV among Black women.”
Sales of the book are already brisk, and the book is receiving notice
from many important firms in the book-publishing industry.
“It has been picked up by the Independent Publishers Group, which
only accepts about two dozen of the 500 books submitted each year,” she
said. “The group distributes books to major bookstores like Borders
and Barnes and Noble. If we can sell 10,000, then we can get a major
book deal.”
Samuels-Young was raised in Compton and attended Compton High School.
She was aware of the drugs, gangs and crime in the city, but remained unaffected.
She studied law and, after passing the California Bar Exam, took a position
with the prestigious law firm O’Melveny and Myers in Los Angeles.
She had already developed a fondness for reading legal fiction, including
the work of John Grisham and Scott Turow.
“I started playing with an idea for a book and it just wouldn’t
let me go,” she said. “In all the legal fiction I had read,
there was no one who looked like me.”
Her first book, Every Reasonable Doubt, was set in a large law firm.
Its heroine is a thirty-something, Black, female lawyer assigned to a murder
case with another Black woman from the firm.
“The two don’t particularly like each other at the start,” she
said. “Part of the story deals with their bonding while solving the
case.”
The protagonist has starred in all three of her books.
“I think that she is an unusual heroine,” she said. “She
is a very successful attorney with a very prestigious legal firm. The setting
allows me to delve into compelling issues in the Black community.”
Samuels-Young said that writing her third book was much easier than
writing her first two; her first book took her three years to finish.
“I was so happy to have (my first book) done,” she said. “I
was expecting an immediate booking on Oprah and a place on the best-seller
list. But, of course, that didn’t happen. In fact, I couldn’t
get it published at all.”
She showed the book to several people who offered their criticism
of the work.
“Once I got over the disappointment, I realized the book wasn’t
really very good,” she said. “So I set about working on my
second one, using what I had learned from the first one.”
Her second book, In Firm Pursuit, was accepted for publication before
Every Reasonable Doubt, though her first book still beat the second to
press.
The first book was published in 2006, and the second will be published
later this year.
“(My third book) took me only a year to do,” she said. “And
I did not have to put in as many hours as I did to complete the first
two.”
That’s a fortunate thing for the ambitious author.
“I’ve had lots of speaking engagements because of my books,” she
said. “This week I spoke to a female lawyers’ group in Sacramento.
I still work as an attorney. Now I work for Toyota as a labor and
employment managing attorney. So my life has gotten a lot busier. But it’s
great and I’m enjoying it. I can’t wait to see what the next
year will bring.”
Murder on the Down Low will be available in major bookstores throughout
the area in the coming weeks.
Samuels-Young will be signing copies of her book at Eso Won Books,
4331 Degnan Blvd., in Leimert Park this Friday, Sept. 5 at 7 p.m.
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