Did You Hear About Kitty Karr?

Paul debuts with a novel that shatters the glamorous facade of Hollywood and reveals its uncomfortable secrets and biases. Elise St. John, a young Black actress whose star is on the rise, is trying to navigate life in the spotlight and the drama and paparazzi that goes with it. Elise is shocked to discover that she and her sisters have inherited the multimillion-dollar estate of Kitty Karr, the award-winning white actress who helped Elise get her start. Everyone is buzzing, wondering why three Black women would be named as Kitty’s heirs. As Elise starts going through Kitty’s estate, she learns about the shocking connection between their two families, discovering that Kitty was actually her grandmother, who was passing for white. Narrators Ariel Blake, Kineta Kunutu, and Lynnette Nicholas gently unveil the mystery of Kitty Karr, taking listeners from 1950s Hollywood to Kitty’s growing up in 1930s North Carolina. The narrators’ combined voices make for a welcome ensemble, although listeners may struggle to distinguish between the novel’s many characters and shifting timelines.