September/October 2002

Black Coffee
by Tracy Price-Thompson

Read Interview

“I may be a supersoldier but I sure as hell ain’t no Superwoman. Yes, it’s true my hand is steady, I have the eye of a marksman, and I can hit a moving target dead center at four hundred meters, but when it comes to making clever love decisions, I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer. While I look pretty lofty in my spit-shined combat boots and razor-sharp battle dress uniform, like a lot of young sisters from the ’hood, I’ve taken a few wrong turns down the back alleys of life.”

Meet Sergeant Sanderella Coffee, who has just completed a three-year overseas tour and is now reporting to a military installation in Virginia. She is a single mother whose goal is to attend the Army’s prestigious Officer Candidate School, which will guarantee a better life for her and her children.

Sandie meets a man who matches her ambition and determination step for step in the form of Drill Sergeant Romulus Caesar, who literally marches into her life and turns it upside down. They fall in love, and Rom is everything Sandie could want—supportive, confident, self-reliant—but he’s also married. Because of the military’s tough policy on fraternization and adultery, Sandie could find her carefully orchestrated career slipping away like sand in a breeze.

Book Review

...Now comes Tracy Price-Thompson, a highly decorated Desert Storm veteran telling a story about two soldiers whose against policy romance threatens both of their military careers. What makes this book such a compelling read is the authors free-wheeling manipulation of alternating scenario changes utilizing the call and response style, in a narrative parlance sharing perspectives on their specific difficulties. It's situations like this that tend to keep readers eagerly looking for drama to unfold in lieu of the author focusing on one entity of the plot, or even one character at the expense of the other before he/she is ready to be introduced. Personally, I like this techique because it departs from the usual single narrator. The authors use of this style gives us an up front and close look at the unique challenges, pseudo successes, and adversities depicting military life seldom written about in commercial fiction.

Sandarella Coffee is a single mother reporting for duty at a Virginia military installation, meets and fall in love with Drill Sergeant Romulus Caesar. It doesn't help that Romulus is trapped in an unhappy and tumultuous marriage with twin sons. Falling too deep for Sandarella, but acknowledging no love for his wife, he's haunted by his obligation to be a contributing parent. The romance between the two proliferate throughout as they search for understanding in their forbidden liason eshewing in the process Uncle Sam's rigid fraternization rules, and the need to be inclusive in their respective familial matters. Two strong willed and ambitious people notwithstanding, the author makes sure to stress character flaws, complexities, and frustration inhibited thereof as the exciting climax comes to fore.

This is a quick read with short to moderate chapters, but at times it stumbles in places...especially when she doesn't spend more time stressing character development introducing issues such as drug dependency and HIV (which she briefly atrtributes to her sister. Reading this book, you'd readily see that the writer has a way with words, but when there's no effort to temper verbosity it lends itself to metaphors and overused cliches that seem forced. Despite this, it doesn't detract from the hue of the colors on this artist's palette. You may add this to perhaps the next book to read on your list! Purchase Book

About the Author

Tracy Price-Thompson is a highly decorated Desert Storm veteran who graduated from Army Officer Candidate School after ten years as an enlisted soldier. A Brooklyn, New York, native and retired Army engineer officer, she lives in New Jersey with her husband and children. Black Coffee is her first novel, and she would love to hear what you think of it. You can e-mail her at tracythomp@aol.com.