The Upper Room By Mary Monroe

The Upper Room by Mary Monroe is an excellent book. The reason why this book is excellent is because it show the true hypocrisy of people. The main character, Ruby or Mama Ruby as people call her, was a truly blessed person. She had a special gift, "healing hands." Mama Ruby was as good as any doctor could bring people back to life. When she stole her friend's baby, she had to move to a new city and start her life over again.
It wasn't long after moving that Mama Ruby was comfortable and back to her old ways. She had bad credit, a drinking problem, and when bill collectors came to collect on what she owed she "chastised" them. Chastising to Mama Ruby meant killing them. People were pretty much scared of Mama Ruby. That is why she got away with all the killings that she did.
In the Upper Room as well as others of Monroe's books all have one question: Can a person kill and set away with it? During this time, I don't think a normal person can necessary set away with murder. It depends on how much status you have in your area. In "God Don't Like Ugly," Rhonda Nelson got away with murder, but her parents had so much status in the neighborhood that nobody suspected her of anything. Just as in the Upper Room except for the fact that Mama Ruby had so much respect in the town that nobody could do anything about the killings. Of course it helped that most people were scared of her including the law.I give this book four stomps.