FREEDOMLAND

When a white woman appears in the emergency room of an inner-city hospital wounded and bleeding and tells police that she had been carjacked by a black who drove off with her young son in the back seat, a furious manhunt ensues. Lorenzo Council, a black detective assigned to the case, begins to have doubts about the woman''s story. Jesse Haus, a reporter for a local paper, also begins to suspect the mother''s veracity and tries to befriend her as a way of learning the true facts. In the meantime, residents of the black housing projects become increasingly angry at the severity of the police investigations, and demagogues within the community take advantage of the situation to foment violence and rebellion. A "New York Times" Notable Book for 1998.