Detective Shawna Stevens Character Analysis

Detective Stevens works for the Grosse Pointe Park Police Department; she’s investigating the death of a local student who died after taking designer drugs. She wears a fuzzy brown coat and sensible brown shoes, which make Fabiola decide that she’s trustworthy—Manman believes one should judge others based on the state of their shoes. However, Detective Stevens knows all about Fabiola’s family history and uses this knowledge to manipulate Fabiola into helping her investigation. She seems particularly skilled at influencing immigrants like Fabiola, who are eager to prove that they’re “real” Americans. Detective Stevens makes a point to note that Fabiola is an American citizen and therefore has a duty to help detectives when needed. Detective Stevens proposes a trade: in exchange for Fabiola’s information on Dray that will lead to his arrest for selling the bad drugs, Detective Stevens will expedite Manman’s processing and help her get a green card. However, the plan ends up going sideways: Fabiola discovers that it’s her cousins, not Dray, who sold the drugs, and her information inadvertently causes the police to murder Kasim. After this happens, Fabiola realizes that Detective Stevens wasn’t helpful or even all that powerful. Instead, she’s a figure whom Bad Leg warned her about in a song, when he sang to “beware the lady dressed all in brown.” Fabiola blames Detective Stevens for Kasim’s death, but Detective Stevens does make good on her promise: mere hours after the novel ends, Manman is going to arrive in the U.S. with her immigration charges dropped.