Smoke Kings
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $19.99
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
“As everything goes up in flames, Mayfield leans all the way into the discomfort zone" - Sarah Weinman, The New York Times
"A fresh and fierce new voice to crime fiction...a stunning book that takes the reader on an intense and harrowing journey that is truly unforgettable. Consider me a big fan." — Don Winslow, New York Times bestselling author of The Cartel, The Force and City on Fire
"Jahmal Mayfield roars to the top of the writer-to-watch list with this sizzling debut. Smoke Kings is straight fire. Every page simmers with an undercurrent of rage, each line a hard dose of smoldering truth. I can't wait to see what Mayfield does next." - Eli Cranor, Edgar Award Winning Novelist of Don't Know Tough
In the vein of Get Out and Razorblade Tears, a feast of noir fiction and probing social commentary that asks us to consider what would happen if reparations were finally charged and exacted.
Nate Evers, a young black political activist, struggles with rage as his people are still being killed in the streets 62 years after Emmett Till. When his little cousin is murdered, Nate shuns the graffiti murals, candlelight vigils, and Twitter hashtags that are commonplace after these senseless deaths. Instead, he leads 3 grief-stricken friends on a mission of retribution, kidnapping the descendants of long-ago perpetrators of hate crimes, confronting the targets with their racist lineages, and forcing them to pay reparations to a community fund. For 3 of the group members, the results mean justice; for Nate – pure revenge.
Not all targets go quietly into the night, though, and Nate and his friends' world spirals out of control when they confront the wrong man. Now the leader of a white supremacist group is hot on their tail as is a jaded lawman with some disturbingly racist views of his own.
As the 4 vigilantes fight to thwart their ruthless pursuers, they’re forced to accept an age-old truth: "Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves."
Smoke Kings is a powerful and propulsive novel with a diverse and unforgettable cast of characters. Like Steph Cha’s Your House Will Pay it explores decades of racial tensions through a fictional landscape where the line between justice and revenge is blurred.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
In Jahmal Mayfield’s provocative debut novel, a vigilante crusade for racial justice erupts into flames of vengeance. After a very personal brush with racial violence and heartbreak, young Black activist Nate Evers leads a group of friends on a daring mission to kidnap descendants of hate crime perpetrators and collect long-overdue reparations. But when the crew’s righteous quest for retribution takes a deadly turn, it puts them in the crosshairs of a violent white supremacist leader and an unhinged ex-cop. Mayfield’s bold storytelling and multidimensional characters draw us into society’s darkest, most painful corners in riveting, unsettling ways. Fusing noir fiction and social commentary, Smoke Kings is a pageturner full of raw intensity and hard truths.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Mayfield's powerful debut, four Black vigilantes in New Jersey seek justice for the racially motivated killing of their leader's younger cousin. Their plan is to kidnap the descendants of past perpetrators of hate crimes and force them to pay financial reparations for their ancestors' acts. The scheme starts to go off the rails when Scott York, targeted for his grandfather's supposed murder of a Black man and his own exploitation of eminent domain to seize Native American land, hires retired police officer Mason Farmer to track down the vigilantes. Things get worse when the group inadvertently kills one of their victims and the man's brother, the leader of a white supremacist gang known as the Righteous Boys, seeks bloody vengeance. The novel climaxes with a sustained action sequence that brings all these tensions to a head and concludes with an unexpected act of gut-wrenching violence worthy of its hefty themes. Well-rounded, sympathetic characters drive the propulsive narrative, which makes room for thoughtful discussions of such topics as Black identity, racial justice, and reparations. Mayfield's lucid prose, breakneck pacing, and confident handling of controversial subject matter make him a writer to watch.
Customer Reviews
Up in smoke
4.5 stars
African-American author. Debut novel.
The title comes from the poem ‘The Song of the Smoke’ by W E Dubois (Google him), which starts, “I am the Smoke King. I am black!”
Plot
The setting is New Jersey, Alabama, and North Carolina 2017-2019. Four young middle-class POC (people of colour) pursue vigilante justice after their black activist leader’s cousin is murdered. The computer skills of the Korean-American member facilitate untraceable extortion of white people for sins, real or perceived, of their ancestors, which is redirected to present day victims of oppression (mainly black). Tensions arise within group as leader becomes more radical. A white Alabama ex-cop turned PI battling family problems is hired by extorted white businessman to hunt them down. He’s not the only one after them.
Characters
Everyone’s got problems, regardless of colour or creed. Mr M teases them all out into credible characters best described as knobbly, rather than well rounded, many of whom swap from good guy to bad guy and back again as the story unfolds. I thought his take on the white protagonist less cogent than the rest, but what would I know? I’m not from Alabama.
Narrative
Third person, alternating POVs from each of the main protagonists. Timeline moves back and forth from present (2019) to death of the black teenager two years earlier. Pacing good. Tension builds nicely with enough twists and turns to keep things interesting. Satisfying ending, for this reader at least. Some of the characters, not so much.
Comment
Like S A Cosby, Mr Mayfield uses a detective story to explore the complex nuances of race relations in present day America, which stretch way beyond BLM, social justice and reparations, better than any non-fiction I’ve read. The detective story is good too. Highly recommended.