Product Description

Summer, 1952. Twenty powerful men gather in secret and devise a plot to manipulate the President of the United States. Soon after, writer Eddie Wesley leaves a party hosted by affluent and influential members of black society, and discovers a body. The murdered man had an unusual gold cross gripped between his hands and Eddie is determined to find out why he was killed and what the cross signifies. But then Eddie's sister Junie becomes entangled in an underground movement and vanishes...Is her disappearance connected to the conspiracy to control the President of the United States?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #147527 in Books
• Published on: 2009-04-30
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 528 pages

Independent, Boyd Tonkin
`richly involving'

Literary Review, Jessica Mann
`A brilliant literary thriller, packed with insight, intelligence and ideas. Eye-opening and absorbing: I really couldn't put it down'

Times, Rev'd Peter Millar
`Insights into a realm little known in the UK'

Customer Reviews

Ultimately unsatisfying
Although the blurb paints this as a political thriller, it's really a potted history of black America/Americans, from the early 50s to the mid-70s, taking in all the momentous events of those times. However, although it is well written and absorbing in places, it ultimately doesn't deliver the huge plot denouement that we are promised will be revealed. I also found it a more than a little unfeasible that the main character would be so deeply, and in many cases personally, involved with so many major political figures of the times. I wouldn't recommend this as a must read but it would be a decent holiday book - it's length alone guarantees that you'll at least have something to pass quite a bit of time!

Dreary
After reading a third of this book, I nearly gave up. After two-thirds I thought I ought to get to the end. I rather wished I had trusted my first instinct. This story covers decades and attempts to interweave a whole raft of modern American history and politics into some opaque conspiracy. Unfortunately I found whole story rather opaque. Clues and conclusions were obscure and tenuous. Vast tracts of time passed with no action or story development. The lead character wandered through 20 years befuddled while somehow becoming more and more celebrated and influential. I don't know if there was a conspiracy or not - frankly, by the end I didn't care either way.

Absorbing tale
Do not be put off by the other reviewer (as at June 2009). This is an intelligent and well written thriller that does not conform to the mainstream stereotypical (pulp) thriller that adorns airport book kiosks. If you want an absorbing read then this book hits the right buttons. Harlem is brought to life wonderfully and the story unfolds over years rather than days, weeks or months which makes a nice change. Some may find the pace at which the novel unfolds too slow and this is true when compared to pulp thrillers but I enjoyed every page. Characters are developed and do not act simply as ciphers for action and plot twists as in many other novels in this genre.