Prior to World War II, black actors were restricted to mainstream film roles as chauffeurs, maids, night club entertainers, and comic buffoons. But there was a second Hollywood, a Black Hollywood, where great producers and directors like Oscar Michaud created films with all-black casts for exhibition to black audiences. Some of the actors worked only in black productions. Others, like the talented Eddie Anderson, could play comic roles in white productions and serious roles in all-black films. When a cache of long-lost African-American films is discovered by cinema researchers, the aged director Edward "Speedy" MacReedy appears to reclaim his place in film history. But insurance investigator Hobart Lindsey and homicide officer Marvia Plum soon find themselves enmeshed in a mystery with its roots deep in the tragic events of a past era, as they seek out...
