Book Review DarkTown

 
Title: Darktown

Author: Thomas Mullen

Stars: 5 out of 5

Review:

The author has taken a historical fact and woven a story that, while fiction, could easily be construed as fact. I found the story to be believable and wrenching. It is hard to realize that something like this could have happened, and similar type behavior probably did occur in many locations, in my lifetime. I encourage anyone who reads this novel to do so with an open mind and to remember that incidents like this did occur.

I have given this book a five star rating.

I received an ARC from Netgalley for my unbiased review.

Synopsis:
 Responding from pressure on high, the Atlanta police department is forced to hire its first black officers in 1948. The newly minted policemen are met with deep hostility by their white peers and their authority is limited: They can’t arrest white suspects; they can’t drive a squad car; they can’t even use the police headquarters and must instead operate out of the basement of a gym.

When a black woman who was last seen in a car driven by a white man turns up fatally beaten, no one seems to care except for Boggs and Smith, two black cops from vastly different backgrounds. Pressured from all sides, they will risk their jobs, the trust the community has put in them, and even their own safety to investigate her death. Their efforts bring them up against an old-school cop, Dunlow, who has long run the neighborhood like his own, and Dunlow’s young partner, Rakestraw, a young progressive who may or may not be willing to make allies across color lines.

About The Author: 
 
Thomas Mullen is the author of "The Last Town on Earth," which was named Best Debut Novel of 2006 by USA Today and was awarded the James Fenimore Cooper Prize for excellence in historical fiction, and "The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers." His books have been named Best of the Year by such publications as The Chicago Tribune, USA Today, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Onion, and Amazon.com.

His third novel, "The Revisionists," will be published in September 2011.

Mullen was born and raised in Rhode Island and graduated from Oberlin College. He has lived in Boston; in Chapel Hill, NC; in Washington, DC; and he now makes his home in Atlanta with his wife and two sons.

When not reading or writing, his greatest interests are music, film, travel, and hiking. The best books he read in 2010 were "Year of the Flood" by Margaret Atwood, "The Book of Daniel" by E.L. Doctorow, "The Bridge of Sighs" and "The Tourist" by Olen Steinhauer, "Serena" by Ron Rash, "Caveman's Valentine" by George Dawes Green, "The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet" by David Mitchell, "Savages" by Don Winslow, "Freedom" by Jonathan Franzen, and "An Ordinary Spy" by Joseph Weisberg.