From the acclaimed author of "the most compelling new series in crime fiction" (Michael Koryta, New York Times bestselling author) comes "a sharply observed novel" (New York Times) that explores race, law enforcement, and justice in mid-century Atlanta.
Officer Denny Rakestraw and "Negro Officers" Lucius Boggs and Tommy Smith have their hands full in an overcrowded and rapidly changing Atlanta. It's 1950 and racial tensions are simmering as black families, including Smith's sister, begin moving into formerly all-white neighborhoods. When Rake's brother-in-law launches a scheme to rally the Ku Klux Klan to "save" their neighborhood, his efforts spiral out of control, forcing Rake to choose between loyalty to family or the law.
Across town, Boggs and Smith try to shut down the supply of white lightning and drugs into their territory, finding themselves up against more powerful foes than they'd expected. Battling corrupt cops and ex-cons, Nazi brown shirts and rogue Klansmen, the officers are drawn closer to the fires that threaten to consume the city once again.
With echoes of Walter Mosley and Dennis Lehane, Mullen "expands the boundaries of crime fiction, weaving in eye-opening details from our checkered history" (Chicago Tribune).
Show moreFrom the acclaimed author of "the most compelling new series in crime fiction" (Michael Koryta, New York Times bestselling author) comes "a sharply observed novel" (New York Times) that explores race, law enforcement, and justice in mid-century Atlanta.
Officer Denny Rakestraw and "Negro Officers" Lucius Boggs and Tommy Smith have their hands full in an overcrowded and rapidly changing Atlanta. It's 1950 and racial tensions are simmering as black families, including Smith's sister, begin moving into formerly all-white neighborhoods. When Rake's brother-in-law launches a scheme to rally the Ku Klux Klan to "save" their neighborhood, his efforts spiral out of control, forcing Rake to choose between loyalty to family or the law.
Across town, Boggs and Smith try to shut down the supply of white lightning and drugs into their territory, finding themselves up against more powerful foes than they'd expected. Battling corrupt cops and ex-cons, Nazi brown shirts and rogue Klansmen, the officers are drawn closer to the fires that threaten to consume the city once again.
With echoes of Walter Mosley and Dennis Lehane, Mullen "expands the boundaries of crime fiction, weaving in eye-opening details from our checkered history" (Chicago Tribune).
Show moreThomas Mullen is the author of The Lightning Men, Darktown, and The Last Town on Earth, which was named Best Debut Novel of 2006 by USA TODAY. He was also awarded the James Fenimore Cooper Prize for excellence in historical fiction for The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers and The Revisionists. His works have been named to Year's Best lists by The Chicago Tribune and USA TODAY, among others. His stories and essays have been published in Grantland, Paste, and the Huffington Post, and his Atlanta Magazine true crime story about a novelist/con man won the City and Regional Magazine Award for Best Feature. He lives in Atlanta with his wife and sons.
"Lightning Men [is] even better than Darktown, which is saying
something."--Sarah Weinman "The Crime Lady"
"Mullen unfolds his multifaceted plot with a sure hands and lively
characterization. Lightning Men is far from predictable and rich
with sociological and emotional detail." -- "The Wall Street
Journal"
"The story was ever moving and kept me on my toes. I was rarely
bored." -- "UP ALL NIGHT BOOK ADDICT BLOG"
"The world Mullen so carefully creates in these pages will be
familiar the readers of Jim Thompson, P.D. James and, especially
James Ellroy, a world full of compromises for where there's
nevertheless a wide, almost evangelical divide between good and
evil. Lightning Men is even more engrossing but it's terrific
predecessor."-- "Open Letters"
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