WASHINGTON, D.C.
It’s not uncommon for fiction writers to create
heroes and heroines whose personalities and life circumstances stem
from the writer’s own experiences. So it should come as no surprise
that when Pamela Thomas-Graham decided to write a mystery novel, she
created an African American heroine who teaches at the same university
where she spent her undergraduate and graduate years.
“[Writing a novel] was something I had wanted to do for a long
time,” Thomas-Graham said of her book, A Darker Shade of Crimson, which
was released by Simon & Schuster in April.
Even though Thomas-Graham did not choose to make academia her
career, the parallels between her and Dr. Veronica “Nikki” Chase, the
heroine of A Darker Shade of Crimson, give fiction’s newest African
American sleuth a compelling basis in reality.
Chase is a thirty-year-old, Harvard-trained Ph.D. economist and an
assistant professor in that school’s economics department. The novel
chronicles her adventures as she investigates the allegedly accidental
death of a Black female administrator at Harvard.
In some respects, Professor Chase represents the alter ego of the
thirty-four-year-old author — a Harvard graduate with degrees in
economics, law, and business, Like the real-life Thomas-Graham, Chase
is a native of Detroit, who majored in economics at Harvard and spent
much of her career in competitive corporate environments. Chase and
Thomas-Graham are both high-achieving, driven, ambitious Black women in
White-male-dominated professions.
In 1995, Thomas-Graham achieved a widely publicized business
milestone by becoming the first African American female partner at
McKinsey & Company. The New York-based management consulting firm,
considered one of the best in the world, has more than 3,000 consult
ants in thirty-five countries. Thomas-Graham’s duties at the company
include advising Fort0he 500 companies in media, retail, and the
apparel businesses. Her achievement got her profiled in Fortune, the
Detroit Free Press, Ebony, Black Enterprise, and Harvard Magazine. It
also landed her on the “40 Under 40” list in Crain’s New York magazine.
