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3.97 AVERAGE
3.97 AVERAGE
My sincere thanks to the author, Thomas Mullen, Edelweiss, and Atria/Simon & Schuster for providing this e-galley to read and review. Darktown isto be published September 13, 2016.
The Hook - This superior review by my friend Trish captured my attention. I knew I had to read Darktown
Trish’s Review
The Line - Per the request of the publisher, Atria Books, I will not quote a line until Darktown is published. Instead I will mention a few references to black veterans returning from World War II. Not only were they not given a welcoming homecoming, they did not receive an iota of the respect that white soldiers took for granted. You can better understand where one character, Tommy Smith is coming from when it is revealed that his father never knew him. When his father returned from the first world war to his pretty wife and son and marched in a Veterans Parade proudly wearing the uniform in which he served our country, he was beaten to a pulp and hung from a tree by white men who felt he was acting uppity Negro.
The Sinker - Thomas Mullen’s Darktown is a fictional relating of the first black policemen hired in Atlanta, GA. Two of these, war veterans Lucius Boggs, a preacher’s son and Tommy Smith are those that we follow in their new roles. Their white counterparts meet them with extreme hostility. In one review these white officers are called their peers. Peers? They cannot arrest white suspects, drive squad cars, or set foot in the police headquarters. Boggs and Smith make a traffic stop when a white man hits a lamppost on their watch. A white man is driving with a black female passenger, an odd mix in this colored community. The encounter does not go well. Later they see the woman thrown out of the vehicle and rather than picking her up they pursue the white driver.
Why, you ask, would they take this job? Boggs is somewhat of a romantic not seeing the whole picture even into the few months he has been an officer. He quickly finds out that he will be arresting the people he resides with, for marital dispute, gambling, drinking and other societal problems. It seems a no-win situation. So why continue what Boggs calls “the sham of being a Negro officer”? He explains it as needing purpose.
When the black woman turns up dead, Boggs and Smith set out to find her killer, but are thwarted at every turn. This unapproved detectiving find them pushing the envelope with their superior as well becoming a thorn in the side of a veteran white, racist cop, Dunlow and his rookie partner, Rakestraw.
When I need a professional review my go-to source is Kirkus. I find their praise and criticism is balanced. However, I do not always agree with them. In the review of Darktown Kirkus states:
”The trouble is that the characters exist as signifiers of ideas rather than people. It's a given that the racist cop will have a drooping belly, and so on. And because the characters lack the specificity that would give the reader a stake in them, the various indignities and atrocities read as both unpleasant and familiar things to endure on the way to a foregone conclusion.
A great historical subject deserves better than this by-the-numbers rendition.
“
There is no question in my mind that the primary characters, both black and white were developed by Mullen and were not stick figures. I was definitely a stakeholder. I did not see the forgone conclusion that Kirkus did, and I honestly don’t understand their reference to ”by-the-numbers rendition”.
Darktown is contextually based on fact though the characters are fictional. The treatment of the black officers, use of racial slurs, the brutal racism exhibited, are tough to read but seem accurate to this era of history. Each of the four main characters tells their story and maintains their own voice.
Darktown is moody in tone and depicts Atlanta in all its grittiness. Rakestraw, “Rake”, describes the other side of his love for the South beautifully in a passage that I’ll add when the book is published.
Darktown is a page-turner, violent and raw and is one of my favorite reads of 2016.
There is a possibility that the story of this period of Atlanta’s Police Department will be continued. As much as I enjoyed Darktown I’m not certain if I need more.
The Hook - This superior review by my friend Trish captured my attention. I knew I had to read Darktown
Trish’s Review
The Line - Per the request of the publisher, Atria Books, I will not quote a line until Darktown is published. Instead I will mention a few references to black veterans returning from World War II. Not only were they not given a welcoming homecoming, they did not receive an iota of the respect that white soldiers took for granted. You can better understand where one character, Tommy Smith is coming from when it is revealed that his father never knew him. When his father returned from the first world war to his pretty wife and son and marched in a Veterans Parade proudly wearing the uniform in which he served our country, he was beaten to a pulp and hung from a tree by white men who felt he was acting uppity Negro.
The Sinker - Thomas Mullen’s Darktown is a fictional relating of the first black policemen hired in Atlanta, GA. Two of these, war veterans Lucius Boggs, a preacher’s son and Tommy Smith are those that we follow in their new roles. Their white counterparts meet them with extreme hostility. In one review these white officers are called their peers. Peers? They cannot arrest white suspects, drive squad cars, or set foot in the police headquarters. Boggs and Smith make a traffic stop when a white man hits a lamppost on their watch. A white man is driving with a black female passenger, an odd mix in this colored community. The encounter does not go well. Later they see the woman thrown out of the vehicle and rather than picking her up they pursue the white driver.
Why, you ask, would they take this job? Boggs is somewhat of a romantic not seeing the whole picture even into the few months he has been an officer. He quickly finds out that he will be arresting the people he resides with, for marital dispute, gambling, drinking and other societal problems. It seems a no-win situation. So why continue what Boggs calls “the sham of being a Negro officer”? He explains it as needing purpose.
When the black woman turns up dead, Boggs and Smith set out to find her killer, but are thwarted at every turn. This unapproved detectiving find them pushing the envelope with their superior as well becoming a thorn in the side of a veteran white, racist cop, Dunlow and his rookie partner, Rakestraw.
When I need a professional review my go-to source is Kirkus. I find their praise and criticism is balanced. However, I do not always agree with them. In the review of Darktown Kirkus states:
”The trouble is that the characters exist as signifiers of ideas rather than people. It's a given that the racist cop will have a drooping belly, and so on. And because the characters lack the specificity that would give the reader a stake in them, the various indignities and atrocities read as both unpleasant and familiar things to endure on the way to a foregone conclusion.
A great historical subject deserves better than this by-the-numbers rendition.
“
There is no question in my mind that the primary characters, both black and white were developed by Mullen and were not stick figures. I was definitely a stakeholder. I did not see the forgone conclusion that Kirkus did, and I honestly don’t understand their reference to ”by-the-numbers rendition”.
Darktown is contextually based on fact though the characters are fictional. The treatment of the black officers, use of racial slurs, the brutal racism exhibited, are tough to read but seem accurate to this era of history. Each of the four main characters tells their story and maintains their own voice.
Darktown is moody in tone and depicts Atlanta in all its grittiness. Rakestraw, “Rake”, describes the other side of his love for the South beautifully in a passage that I’ll add when the book is published.
Darktown is a page-turner, violent and raw and is one of my favorite reads of 2016.
There is a possibility that the story of this period of Atlanta’s Police Department will be continued. As much as I enjoyed Darktown I’m not certain if I need more.
This was a really hard book to read as it highlighted the struggles of the first black police officers in Atlanta and the terrible things they had to overcome. It contained a lot of vulgar language and violence but I couldn’t put it down.
I read this for my book club. I really enjoyed the writing, the characters and the setting. I liked the core plot of the eight cops, but found the overall mystery a bit dull! But it was fun.
Very good historical crime fiction that was well written, atmospheric, and had such interesting characterizations both major and supporting. Set in post World War 2 Atlanta, the plot revolved around the first African-American police officers hired by the city. Listened to the audio version which was read by Andre Holland who gave a nice performance.
A crime novel set in Atlanta in 1948, Darktown uses the genre to shine a light on a point in time in American history and, in doing so, on present day America. Thomas Mullen uses as his jumping off point the true story of the appointment of the first eight black policemen in Atlanta. They do not have an office, instead they are forced to operate out of the basement of a local YMCA. They were not given cars and had to call in white detectives when a matter needed investigation. Distrusted almost as much by the locals in their own, segregated neighbourhoods as by their fellow police officers, they were nevertheless part of the vanguard of a nascent civil rights movement.
Lucius Boggs, son of the local preacher and recently returned from the Second World War, is one of the first eight black policemen in Atlanta. He and his fellow recruits are keen to clean up their part of town, rife with bootleggers, gambling and prostitution. To add to their problems, many of those enterprises are either sponsored or actively managed by their white police colleagues who make money from turning a blind eye and who are not keen to see any change to the status quo. Despite not being permitted to investigate crimes, Boggs and his partner, Tommy Smith, surreptitiously take on the investigation of the death of a young black girl who has died in suspicious circumstances but whose case has been shelved.
On the other side of the tracks, Rakestraw, a white rookie cop who also saw action in the War is supposed to be learning the ropes from an ageing corrupt, violent, racist partner. While Rakestraw does not necessarily want to see the communities of Atlanta integrated, he does want to do something about the corruption that surrounds him and see the fledgling black police force succeed. And it is this interest that also sees him investigating the same death as Boggs and Smith.
Darktown has a James Ellroy feel to it. A tightly plotted procedural in which police with different agendas and different access to witnesses and evidence are trying to attack a problem separately, finding only late in the piece that they are on the same trail. And while this setup takes a while, the second half of the novel picks up significant pace with some white-knuckle cliffhangers based as much in the social divide as in the criminal activity. And as if to underscore the structure, after mainly separate chapters, a single chapter climax alternates between the two main characters as they work at different angles of the case.
The historical context not only highlights how attitudes have changed since the 1940s but how the attitudes of those times are still not far from the surface. Mullen explores the way the new policemen are treated, not only by their colleagues but by the wider community and in some cases their own community. He also looks at the still all too common tensions and reactions to the way neighbourhoods change over time. There is an optimism here. Mullen makes clear the strength of will and purpose that carried these men through, a strength which formed the backbone of the civil rights movement. A strength that continues to be needed in a world that is still haunted by the attitudes of the 1940s.
More reviews at http://www.pilebythebed.com
Lucius Boggs, son of the local preacher and recently returned from the Second World War, is one of the first eight black policemen in Atlanta. He and his fellow recruits are keen to clean up their part of town, rife with bootleggers, gambling and prostitution. To add to their problems, many of those enterprises are either sponsored or actively managed by their white police colleagues who make money from turning a blind eye and who are not keen to see any change to the status quo. Despite not being permitted to investigate crimes, Boggs and his partner, Tommy Smith, surreptitiously take on the investigation of the death of a young black girl who has died in suspicious circumstances but whose case has been shelved.
On the other side of the tracks, Rakestraw, a white rookie cop who also saw action in the War is supposed to be learning the ropes from an ageing corrupt, violent, racist partner. While Rakestraw does not necessarily want to see the communities of Atlanta integrated, he does want to do something about the corruption that surrounds him and see the fledgling black police force succeed. And it is this interest that also sees him investigating the same death as Boggs and Smith.
Darktown has a James Ellroy feel to it. A tightly plotted procedural in which police with different agendas and different access to witnesses and evidence are trying to attack a problem separately, finding only late in the piece that they are on the same trail. And while this setup takes a while, the second half of the novel picks up significant pace with some white-knuckle cliffhangers based as much in the social divide as in the criminal activity. And as if to underscore the structure, after mainly separate chapters, a single chapter climax alternates between the two main characters as they work at different angles of the case.
The historical context not only highlights how attitudes have changed since the 1940s but how the attitudes of those times are still not far from the surface. Mullen explores the way the new policemen are treated, not only by their colleagues but by the wider community and in some cases their own community. He also looks at the still all too common tensions and reactions to the way neighbourhoods change over time. There is an optimism here. Mullen makes clear the strength of will and purpose that carried these men through, a strength which formed the backbone of the civil rights movement. A strength that continues to be needed in a world that is still haunted by the attitudes of the 1940s.
More reviews at http://www.pilebythebed.com
I wasn't quite sure what to expect with Darktown because it was billed as a mystery and also had a historical fiction element to it with this being about the first African American police officers in Atlanta. I enjoy a good mystery and love historical fiction (especially about a topic I know very little about) and I thought this was so well done. The mash up between the two genre's blended perfectly and to be honest, I felt the mystery took a backseat to the every day life of the characters we were introduced to.
To be frank (and share my ignorance) I couldn't believe everything I learned about the absolute nightmare of what it was like to even BE the first African American cops in the south. The local government passed a law saying that there had to be African American police (this done so only because enough black people came together to vote that they wanted this in the first place - in a time where even voting as a black person could quite literally get you killed), yet they couldn't arrest white people, couldn't drive squad cars, couldn't visit the police station and couldn't wear their uniforms to and from work. Another shining example of how great white people were to fellow human beings that unfortunately continues today. (I'm talking about you white lady calling the police on a group of black people having a BBQ in a public park!).
To me, the author's prose was so beautifully written. I could feel how hot and sticky it was and see 1950's Atlanta as if time traveling. This is one of my favorite passages demonstrating the complex feelings of the sympathetic white character and simple expectations in the black man's response:
It was so difficult to walk this line. To let colored people know that just because you were the same color as fire-breathing racists didn't mean you agreed with them. And at the same time, just because you were talking to a colored person and desperately trying to impart some wisdom and necessary advice, that didn't mean that you agreed with what Calvin was doing to his wife and kids, or to your own neighborhood.
"All I'm doing is living," Calvin said. "Working my job, and sleeping at night. That's all I ask and all I expect."
I gave this 4 stars, but it really is 4.5 to me. It would have been 5 stars, but the resolution of the mystery was a little underwhelming to me. I was actually mad at myself for not figuring it out earlier, but I honestly was just so happy reading this book and absorbing all the information that the resolution of the mystery became almost a backdrop. With that being said, I am so happy that stories like this are being told and they should be promoted more heavily. It's hard for me to understand how human beings can go out of their way to be so cruel and unjust to other fellow human beings. It is with books like these that we can all learn from one another so as to try and spread love and peace, instead of hate and intolerance.
To be frank (and share my ignorance) I couldn't believe everything I learned about the absolute nightmare of what it was like to even BE the first African American cops in the south. The local government passed a law saying that there had to be African American police (this done so only because enough black people came together to vote that they wanted this in the first place - in a time where even voting as a black person could quite literally get you killed), yet they couldn't arrest white people, couldn't drive squad cars, couldn't visit the police station and couldn't wear their uniforms to and from work. Another shining example of how great white people were to fellow human beings that unfortunately continues today. (I'm talking about you white lady calling the police on a group of black people having a BBQ in a public park!).
To me, the author's prose was so beautifully written. I could feel how hot and sticky it was and see 1950's Atlanta as if time traveling. This is one of my favorite passages demonstrating the complex feelings of the sympathetic white character and simple expectations in the black man's response:
It was so difficult to walk this line. To let colored people know that just because you were the same color as fire-breathing racists didn't mean you agreed with them. And at the same time, just because you were talking to a colored person and desperately trying to impart some wisdom and necessary advice, that didn't mean that you agreed with what Calvin was doing to his wife and kids, or to your own neighborhood.
"All I'm doing is living," Calvin said. "Working my job, and sleeping at night. That's all I ask and all I expect."
I gave this 4 stars, but it really is 4.5 to me. It would have been 5 stars, but the resolution of the mystery was a little underwhelming to me. I was actually mad at myself for not figuring it out earlier, but I honestly was just so happy reading this book and absorbing all the information that the resolution of the mystery became almost a backdrop. With that being said, I am so happy that stories like this are being told and they should be promoted more heavily. It's hard for me to understand how human beings can go out of their way to be so cruel and unjust to other fellow human beings. It is with books like these that we can all learn from one another so as to try and spread love and peace, instead of hate and intolerance.
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
This was a tough read. I loved learning about the street light and find history like that interesting but I the rest was rough. It's always hard to read about bigots and racism, but it's good to be reminded what's been done and what's gone on. I appreciated that this took place in Atlanta and I was able to picture a lot of the landscape and feel the heat.
This is a murder investigation but it's also a story about the first 8 African-American police force in Atlanta. The hatred, racism and abuse they were subjected to. The other officers, people in town - it was all rough. I loved learning about Boggs and Smith and their time on the force. I liked how all the character's weren't all good or all bad. Instead, they were just humans, making tough decisions under really diffucult circumstances.
I love how hard they fought for a murdered woman discarded in a ally and the forced friends and enemies it made of them all. I am looking forward to book 2 to see where this new officers go from here!
This is a murder investigation but it's also a story about the first 8 African-American police force in Atlanta. The hatred, racism and abuse they were subjected to. The other officers, people in town - it was all rough. I loved learning about Boggs and Smith and their time on the force. I liked how all the character's weren't all good or all bad. Instead, they were just humans, making tough decisions under really diffucult circumstances.
I love how hard they fought for a murdered woman discarded in a ally and the forced friends and enemies it made of them all. I am looking forward to book 2 to see where this new officers go from here!
I didn’t totally love the story line, but i loved the history provided in this book. This is my hometown, and i really appreciated the perspective on how African American police officers were first brought onto the police force and how they were treated. It gave me a good perspective on an area i drive through regularly but really don’t know much about its history. Encouraged me to do more research.
The historical parts of this book were interesting, but the plot itself was just average.