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A review by srgower
Darktown by Thomas Mullen
2.0
This book was gifted to me about a year ago, and I didn’t get to it until now. However from the description alone I thought that this would be an interesting read, primarily because of the combination of being a crime novel and one that would deal with race dynamics and the challenges with a segregated system (let alone a segregated police system). But does the book live up to the jacket’s promise?
In short, yes – but also no. I acknowledge that the main plot – the death of a woman that is the main investigation from main characters Boggs & Smith – is a good page-turner, and for the most part holds up throughout the novel. We’re given several red herrings along the way, and the story twists accordingly to make sure that it’s not an open and shut case (even though the white police officers would love it to stay that way). The first part of the book also follows a neat structure in that it seems to follow the day-to-day shiftwork from the beat cops (both the white and black officers). That’s the “yes” part.
The “also no” part rests with the characters. Going back to the structure really quick, the “beat cop” narrative structure gets dropped as Boggs & Smith (and Rakestraw, to an extent) begin to investigate the murder in earnest. I was slightly disappointed that this structure was dropped midway through the book, because I thought it was an interesting lens to follow the story through. But that aside, I had more problems with the characters, so let’s get back to that.
I think that Boggs was the only character that was fully fleshed out. As the book goes along we find out that yes, he is technically a war veteran, but he didn’t actually go overseas; he was held back (due to his extra “enthusiasm” to fight) and had a miserable time in South Carolina training camps. He comes from money – his father is a Reverend very popular in the community – and realizes that the world works much differently than he has been allowed to perceive; he comes very close to quitting as a police officer at a few points in the book.
The rest of the characters come across as your “usual” caricatures found in race relations media. The evil, bad cop Dunlow just hates the black officers, and is doing everything he can to get them fired. He encourages his kids to take up violence to drive a black man out of a white neighbourhood. Mullen attempts to give him some depth at the end of the novel when he tells a story about how he felt sorry for prostitutes in a brothel, but it really falls flat.
Officer Rakestraw, the “progressive” officer, is thankfully not presented as a white saviour. His backstory is a little bit interesting – he’s progressive because his grandmother suffered persecution in Germany and encouraged acceptance and tolerance in his family, so at least his progressiveness tracks. Despite his willingness to accept the black police officers, he doesn’t do much to help them: he tells himself he’ll stop Dunlow from beating up black people; he doesn’t understand what the black police officers really want, and his reason for helping investigate the woman’s murder is to help separate white cops from black cops and keep them out of each other’s business. In the end, Rakestraw is by no means “enlightened” and just barely respects his black colleagues – so I will give Mullen points for this realism.
That’s where I’m also conflicted. By the end of the books, the only real “progress” is that Boggs decides he will stay on the force as a police officer. Otherwise, nothing else has really changed. The murder is solved (more on that in a little bit), but there’s no justice involved. All of these things are realistic and fit with the era in which the novel is set. I guess I was disappointed with the mostly flat characters.
The setting – Atlanta – also seemed to be very important to the book, but then it also wasn’t. The way it was important is because it is very true, the city of Atlanta introduced black police officers in 1948. The attitudes toward black people in the South the late 40’s are very relevant, and the contrast between the “country” and the “city” are felt here. There’s a feeling of safety felt in Atlanta that is not at all there outside the city limits that is very believable and real. But Mullen concentrates on making sure we know exactly how hot it is, but I don’t see how that heat comes into play in the story at all.
And that’s another point of writing that really bothered me. Mullen used some really bad metaphors and literary devices to describe how oppressively hot it was, and it took me out of the book.
The sun was not taking any prisoners.
Page 247
…the sun had a serious agenda that no sane person wanted to get involved with.
Page 283
I have to figure that Mullen was trying to emulate the “hard boiled” detective stories that he references as books Boggs read as a kid; were these descriptions supposed to be from Boggs’ point of view? It doesn’t seem that way, but really…the writing was bad. In other areas, it was sloppy. I found at least two sections where the narrative cut off just as a character was about to learn something important, and the next section we get has a character saying something to the effect of, “Wow that was some important information we learned! We better act quickly.”
And there was a point where we are made to think a character was shot in the head, and then soon after in another chapter the character is talking freely with another, and we don’t find out until the NEXT chapter after that one what really happened – the onomatopoeia of “bang” was just mouthed by the character pointing the gun at him. That felt really cheap.
Which leads me to the conclusion of the murder investigation. Throughout the whole book there were so many twists and turns that it felt like it was a complicated story and every time we learn something new, another layer was added to the story. As it continues more and more suspects are eliminated until we find out that “it was the congressman’s son”. That also felt like a really cheap ending. We’ve gone through all sorts of trials and ordeals, and it ended up being a simple, clichéd solution. Isn’t it always the rich kid who makes a mistake and tries to handle it?
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the book despite the flaws I pointed out. The story WAS interesting and I finished it rather quickly compared to my “normal” pace of reading. Credit to Thomas Mullen for crafting the book in such a way to keep me reading all the way through!
I initially thought a “3” rating was appropriate for the book but after re-thinking everything, I think two stars makes sense here. I liked the book, but there were a lot of problems with the book (for me) that I couldn’t look past. Glancing over the Goodreads reviews, most of them are 4 or 5 stars, and I hope that it is because the readers genuinely enjoyed the book that much, and not because the book purported to look at racial issues in 1948 Atlanta and they feel obligated to give it a high rating lest they be painted as racist. I think there is enough in this book that lead me to believe someone could genuinely enjoy it that much, so I’m not going to think poorly of those people.
If you are looking for a mystery / crime novel, I don’t think you would be disappointed with this novel. Twists, turns, some conspiracies – it’s got quite a lot packed into 370 pages. On top of that, it could also sit on the “Historical Fiction” shelf. Give it a shot!
In short, yes – but also no. I acknowledge that the main plot – the death of a woman that is the main investigation from main characters Boggs & Smith – is a good page-turner, and for the most part holds up throughout the novel. We’re given several red herrings along the way, and the story twists accordingly to make sure that it’s not an open and shut case (even though the white police officers would love it to stay that way). The first part of the book also follows a neat structure in that it seems to follow the day-to-day shiftwork from the beat cops (both the white and black officers). That’s the “yes” part.
The “also no” part rests with the characters. Going back to the structure really quick, the “beat cop” narrative structure gets dropped as Boggs & Smith (and Rakestraw, to an extent) begin to investigate the murder in earnest. I was slightly disappointed that this structure was dropped midway through the book, because I thought it was an interesting lens to follow the story through. But that aside, I had more problems with the characters, so let’s get back to that.
I think that Boggs was the only character that was fully fleshed out. As the book goes along we find out that yes, he is technically a war veteran, but he didn’t actually go overseas; he was held back (due to his extra “enthusiasm” to fight) and had a miserable time in South Carolina training camps. He comes from money – his father is a Reverend very popular in the community – and realizes that the world works much differently than he has been allowed to perceive; he comes very close to quitting as a police officer at a few points in the book.
The rest of the characters come across as your “usual” caricatures found in race relations media. The evil, bad cop Dunlow just hates the black officers, and is doing everything he can to get them fired. He encourages his kids to take up violence to drive a black man out of a white neighbourhood. Mullen attempts to give him some depth at the end of the novel when he tells a story about how he felt sorry for prostitutes in a brothel, but it really falls flat.
Officer Rakestraw, the “progressive” officer, is thankfully not presented as a white saviour. His backstory is a little bit interesting – he’s progressive because his grandmother suffered persecution in Germany and encouraged acceptance and tolerance in his family, so at least his progressiveness tracks. Despite his willingness to accept the black police officers, he doesn’t do much to help them: he tells himself he’ll stop Dunlow from beating up black people; he doesn’t understand what the black police officers really want, and his reason for helping investigate the woman’s murder is to help separate white cops from black cops and keep them out of each other’s business. In the end, Rakestraw is by no means “enlightened” and just barely respects his black colleagues – so I will give Mullen points for this realism.
That’s where I’m also conflicted. By the end of the books, the only real “progress” is that Boggs decides he will stay on the force as a police officer. Otherwise, nothing else has really changed. The murder is solved (more on that in a little bit), but there’s no justice involved. All of these things are realistic and fit with the era in which the novel is set. I guess I was disappointed with the mostly flat characters.
The setting – Atlanta – also seemed to be very important to the book, but then it also wasn’t. The way it was important is because it is very true, the city of Atlanta introduced black police officers in 1948. The attitudes toward black people in the South the late 40’s are very relevant, and the contrast between the “country” and the “city” are felt here. There’s a feeling of safety felt in Atlanta that is not at all there outside the city limits that is very believable and real. But Mullen concentrates on making sure we know exactly how hot it is, but I don’t see how that heat comes into play in the story at all.
And that’s another point of writing that really bothered me. Mullen used some really bad metaphors and literary devices to describe how oppressively hot it was, and it took me out of the book.
The sun was not taking any prisoners.
Page 247
…the sun had a serious agenda that no sane person wanted to get involved with.
Page 283
I have to figure that Mullen was trying to emulate the “hard boiled” detective stories that he references as books Boggs read as a kid; were these descriptions supposed to be from Boggs’ point of view? It doesn’t seem that way, but really…the writing was bad. In other areas, it was sloppy. I found at least two sections where the narrative cut off just as a character was about to learn something important, and the next section we get has a character saying something to the effect of, “Wow that was some important information we learned! We better act quickly.”
And there was a point where we are made to think a character was shot in the head, and then soon after in another chapter the character is talking freely with another, and we don’t find out until the NEXT chapter after that one what really happened – the onomatopoeia of “bang” was just mouthed by the character pointing the gun at him. That felt really cheap.
Which leads me to the conclusion of the murder investigation. Throughout the whole book there were so many twists and turns that it felt like it was a complicated story and every time we learn something new, another layer was added to the story. As it continues more and more suspects are eliminated until we find out that “it was the congressman’s son”. That also felt like a really cheap ending. We’ve gone through all sorts of trials and ordeals, and it ended up being a simple, clichéd solution. Isn’t it always the rich kid who makes a mistake and tries to handle it?
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the book despite the flaws I pointed out. The story WAS interesting and I finished it rather quickly compared to my “normal” pace of reading. Credit to Thomas Mullen for crafting the book in such a way to keep me reading all the way through!
I initially thought a “3” rating was appropriate for the book but after re-thinking everything, I think two stars makes sense here. I liked the book, but there were a lot of problems with the book (for me) that I couldn’t look past. Glancing over the Goodreads reviews, most of them are 4 or 5 stars, and I hope that it is because the readers genuinely enjoyed the book that much, and not because the book purported to look at racial issues in 1948 Atlanta and they feel obligated to give it a high rating lest they be painted as racist. I think there is enough in this book that lead me to believe someone could genuinely enjoy it that much, so I’m not going to think poorly of those people.
If you are looking for a mystery / crime novel, I don’t think you would be disappointed with this novel. Twists, turns, some conspiracies – it’s got quite a lot packed into 370 pages. On top of that, it could also sit on the “Historical Fiction” shelf. Give it a shot!