I have just finished reading Neon Houses by Linda C. Mims. First the author’s blurb found on Amazon.

“Dr. Noel Kennedy hears screams inside her head, but the screams aren’t hers. While preparing for her annual end-of-summer barbecue, Noel hears her young friend—twenty-year-old Zarah Fisher—screaming for her life. However Zarah is miles away! 

Noel knows the exact moment Zarah takes her last breath because Noel has a secret! It’s a secret that not even her husband Richard knows.

As the Deputy Chief of Schools of Gang Territory, Noel has perfected her life. She is a solid, middle-class citizen from New Chicago, Incorporated. New Chicago and Gang Territory have become vastly different societies since the early Urban Wars. Now, year 2087 finds New Chicago’s military-trained police determined to enforce laws that keep “gang people” out.

Harlem Pierce, a New Chicago police detective, has been warned to stay away from this case and he urges Noel to let it go. But a new killing involves Noel’s younger cousin and her boyfriend and links Noel to it in a startling way.

Who can Noel draw on? Must she turn to Warren Simpson—the menacing, treacherous boss of Gang Territory? Or … could he be the killer?”

By the middle of chapter one, I knew this book was different from mainstream futuristic novels. Mims’ wove a true unique read with an interesting plot and characters. I didn’t expect a chilling murder at the beginning, but this novel demands action and is quite gripping. A future Chicago and Gang Territory, those with money, and those who live in the ghetto – drug/crime lords, growing up on the street, and more makes this book believable, as I can visually see this entire novel in my brain. A book that garners this kind of a reaction from me garners five stars, especially when it is well-written. Mim’s characters spring to life in a futuristic socioeconomic environment and gave me pause to wonder just what Earth will be like in the late 2000’s. Well done Ms. Mims.