Glory Be, by Danielle Arceneaux

Glory Be by Danielle Arceneaux

Glory Broussard, a self-described “old, fat, Black woman,” the eponymous heroine of Glory Be, is a resident of Lafayette, Louisiana, where she serves as the town bookie, taking bets after church on Sundays in the neighborhood coffee shop. Glory puts up a brave front, but this former local beauty queen is now divorced and feeling insecure.

When her beloved friend Amity is found dead, ostensibly by suicide, Glory decides the police are wrong and that Amity was murdered. She assumes the task of finding the killer with a reckless tenacity, intermittently enlisting the help of her pretty daughter Delphine, a tech-savvy young woman with her own catalog of life challenges.

Glory is stubborn, dismissive of the advice and admonitions of friends and foes alike, even as her investigations into Amity’s death are accompanied by ineptly executed attempts on Glory’s life. Glory is also resourceful. Who but Glory Broussard would have the foresight to carry a taser on an outing to confront a local ne’er-do-well who sets his pit bull on her? Arceneaux has done an excellent job in making Glory a feisty, refreshing character who is easy to like.

This entertaining drama gives us a taste of life in Louisiana’s Cajun country. Glory Be is enriched by a colorful cast of characters: a Catholic nun who partakes of the forbidden fruit of on-line dating; an overly sophisticated priest with a wardrobe, appetite, and bank roll to match; Beau Landry, the handsome police officer trapped in a troubled marriage; Glory’s ruthlessly nosy, estranged sister Shirley, a shameless kleptomaniac; and the ladies of the philanthropic Acadiana Red Hat Society. As the plot unfolds, we hear echoes of The Pelican Brief, and comic relief gives way to our heroine’s struggle to survive while tirelessly and ingeniously solving the mystery of her best friend’s death.