No Place Safe

Winner of the Colorado Book Award in Creative Nonfiction The "Rocky Mountain News"features "No Place Safe"

In this compelling memoir, Kim Reid hauntingly transports readers to the innocent world of a childhood protected by a loving home, yet threatened by a danger beyond any child's understanding. . .

Thirteen-year-old Kim Reid will never forget the summer of 1979. In those precious free moments when she is not taking care of her little sister while her single mother works as a cop, Kim's days are filled with thoughts of boys, makeup, and starting high school in the fall. When a heartbreaking discovery along a quiet Atlanta road makes the news, Kim's mother instructs her girls to be careful. Accustomed to her mother's warnings, Kim feels she already knows how to stay alert and carry herself as if she's not scared.

But as the shadow of danger lengthens over Kim's once-sunny landscape of friends and family, she learns there is no place safe. While her mother becomes preoccupied with her increasingly high-profile job, Kim feels life unraveling. Straddling the worlds of her black neighborhood and her wealthy white school, teetering on the brink between girl and woman, Kim is torn between fitting in and finding her own voice;between becoming strong and clinging to the last traces of her childhood.

In this deeply intimate, powerful narrative, Kim Reid weaves an unforgettable story of growing up and the events that shape us forever. . .

Kim Reid grew up in Atlanta, the backdrop of her memoir. She graduated from George Washington University with a master's degree in National Security Policy in 1990. Before deciding to focus on writing, she took a few detours, including a stint as a collections agent for the IRS and several years in management at a telecommunications and software company. Kim lives in Colorado with her husband.

Praise for No Place Safe by Kim Reid

"Though a child herself, Kim Reid sat on the edge of a front row seat to one of the twentieth century's most bizarre and baffling murder cases. With "No Place Safe" she delivers her experience as a compelling story told from a sensitive gut and a formidable intellect. A narrative woven with strands of threatened innocence and Southern gothic gives "No Place Safe" the texture of a modern, urban "To Kill a Mockingbird." " --Elyse Singleton, author of "This Side of the Sky"

"Like every great memoir writer, Kim Reid bares her heart and soul in this powerful account of growing up in a world of danger. Her honesty and storytelling skills make every page come alive."--Kien Nguyen, author of "The Unwanted"

""No Place Safe, " a dazzling memoir by Kim Reid, is so compelling you won't stop reading until you finish. This outstanding offering is sure to safely place Kim Reid in the company of best-selling authors. So don't blink or you will miss this author's meteoric rise to the top." --Carolyn Quick Tillery, author of "Southern Homecoming Traditions"

"A gracefully written, vivid, heartfelt and deeply intimate work. In the very best sense, Kim Reid's "No Place Safe" has Hollywood film written all over it! Against the backdrop of Atlanta's infamous and still controversial child-murder spree, thirteen year old Kim Reid demonstrates uncanny wisdom, grit and confidence as she overcomes the fear and panic gripping Atlanta's children, to narrate her compelling personal story;all the while bringing to heartbreaking life each of the murdered boys. If we want to understand the hearts of today's children being inundated with daily stories of slain or kidnapped classmates and the threatening world we say is waiting for them, we would do well to spend some time with Kim Reid." --Robert Hooks, Actor/ Producer/ Cultural Activist

"Reid maintains a lively sense of dialogue and characterization, and her memoir is an affecting tale of a girl's transformation in a climate of fear and pervasive, b