Backstabbing women with hidden agendas and scandalous pasts start an avalanche with one gossipy snowball after the other. Mallory Baylor left Atlanta years ago to take a bite out of the Big Apple. She lands a staff writing position at Heat magazine, which is beneath her drive and talent. Her chance at a much coveted features writer slot opens for her, but she has to interview someone from her past- multimedia mogul Saxton McKenzie, the love of her life and father of the son she gave up for adoption, in order to get it. When Saxton realizes that his old flame is his interviewer he makes a careless mistake. He offers her the new executive editor position at his fiancee, Deena Ingram’s Spotlight Magazine and thus, adds to the snowball building Avalanche headed for both his, Deena’s and Mallory’s lives.

Girlfriend confidences and fireside confessions leak into the “Talk of the Town” gossip column whereby Saxton and Mallory’s skeletons tumble out of their closets one by one. Who’s telling these secrets? Will this ruin Deena’s celebrity stardom? Will Saxton find out about his son?

When I read this story I saw E. Lynn Harris not Tracie Howard writing this. I see stereotypical characters morphed into sleeker camaflouge. Nicki, Mallory’s roommate is a vindictive she-devil reminiscent of EJD’s antagonist, Jessica Lawrence in The Other Woman and Sheila Moore of Jacqueline Thomas’ Prodigal Son. All of these women were dark skinned morally inept women ruled by ambition over common decency. Yet, the difference between those main characters is that the reader knew what was behind the mask, but Nicki was never unveiled. As a brown skinned woman I wonder about the implied results of such characters. Nonetheless, the main witch of the novel, Deena Ingram is a bonafide BAP who would Pass any day of the week, if it meant an increase in her ratings or her father’s rise to the Supreme Court. I found this labeling a worrisome as well. What does this say about our society and about the African American Woman’s Voice?
There’s too much attention to materialism and couture that do not lend itself to the moral message of the piece, which is about the price you pay to choose wealth over true love. Although the book is a guilty pleasure there are undertones that deserve further discussion.
This book could have been more powerful as a study on 21st century African American society, but it glossed over the issue. A few weeks ago I had an online discussion about the purposes of commercial and literary fiction. I was told that commercial was to entertain, while literary was to inform. Yet, when we look at the writings of Jessie Fauset, her intentions for her writing was not to inform, but to make a living at something she was good at-tell a story. Therefore, how can we now confuse the two? Whether the story is written in difficult prose like Toni Morrison or in glitzy glam like Tracie Howard the point remains the same. What are we saying about ourselves? And are we saying it in the best way? Why Sleeping Dogs Lie missed the mark, because its ending was cheapened by soap opera-esque bantor and too many coincidences. There was no black moment deep enough for me to care about Mallory’s plight or Saxton’s future. Howard is a great writer and she could have done it, if she wasn’t trying to please too many people and letting her own sleeping dogs lie.

Tracie Howard

Tracie Howard’s first novel is an average read with a misguided title. It would have been better titled, Why Beat a Dead Horse. Now don’t get me wrong the story is full of bite and is the kind of thing that is sure to spark a debate around a many office coolers, but haven’t we read this type of work before?