Red Light Wives
by Mary Monroe

From the back cover:

 From the bestselling author of the acclaimed God Don’t Like Ugly comes a powerful and passionate novel about the hopes, dreams, laughter—and limits—of six unique women surviving on the streets of San Francisco...

They’re about as different as six women can be—haughty and humble, beautiful and plain, young and not-so-young, black, white, Latina, and origins unknown. But aside from a gift for laughing hardship in the face, they have one very important thing in common—Clyde Brooks. You might say that Clyde is their “manager.” And you might say that Lula Mae, Ester, Megan, Rosalee, Helen, and Rockelle are colleagues—in the world’s oldest profession. Clyde likes to refer to them as his “wives.” After all, they do what wives are expected to do—take care of him and watch over his beloved young daughter, Keisha.

Maybe it’s their love for the high life—and for each other—that makes the bond between Clyde’s ladies so unbreakable. Maybe it’s their private demons that invite him to act as their savior and tyrant, father, brother, and lover. And maybe it’s middle-class Helen’s naïve vulnerability, privileged Megan’s shocking secret, strong, smart Lula Mae’s maternal nature, and wild-child Ester’s anger at the rest of the world that keep them so loyal—or so Clyde thinks. For hard as they try to distract themselves, nothing can quell the women’s longing for a life free from Clyde and what he represents—until one daring act of defiance changes everything…

Red Light Wives
by Mary Monroe

ISBN: 0758200021
ISBN-13: 9780758200020
Publisher: Dafina Books (Kensington)
Publication Date: 2004
Format: Trade Paperback, 360 pages
Book Type: New