Don't Blame Me: The Convict Chronicles is a collection of short stories that will take you on a journey behind the walls and barbed wire fences of America's Prison system and into the hearts and minds of its convicts as well as their loved ones.
You'll go on a visit with a lifer and the daughter he hasn't seen in 14 years. You'll witness a drive-by shooting through the eyes of a 3-year old; you'll read a letter written by the illiterate hand of a dying man, and find out why a young girl is accused of killing her father. You will watch an innocent man fight for love and freedom and lose both; and you will discover the disturbing ways in which five inmates react when it slips out that one of them has tested positive for HIV.
The stories are riveting and contain plot-twists you'll never see coming. Jonathan Queen is the writer the world has been waiting for. He is an urban voice with a literary hand.
You will not be able to read this book without your heart and mind being changed. The power and poignancy of Queen's writing destines the works in this book to be classics in the anthologies of great literature. If you select this book to read, fasten your seat belt because you are embarking on a roller-coaster ride of ideas and emotions.
Roger Blackwell, Ph.D.
Professor (retired), The Ohio State University
