African American Crime

Smoke Kings is a powerful and propulsive novel with a diverse and unforgettable cast of characters. Like Steph Cha's Your House Will Pay it explores decades of racial tensions through a fictional landscape where the line between justice and revenge is blurred.

Hannibal, a young man from Tulsa, Oklahoma, grows up wanting some of the finer things in life. Due to the fact that his family cannot afford those things, he decides to take matters into his own hands. Hannibal begins a life of crime that turns into a life of turmoil. He is the leader of the biggest crime mob in Oklahoma, however he wants to do other things besides just rob, steal, and kill. When he is convicted of a jewelry store robbery, Hannibal is give an ultimatum by the judge. He is told that he is not to commit any type of illegal act for one hundred and twenty days or he will be ...

Having successfully served out his one hundred and twenty day probation, Hannibal is free move about the country and expand his criminal empire. He has devised a plan that will bring a level of anonymity to himself and the top-level people he has around him. He has also found a way to eliminate the competition and consolidate their operations into his. However, just like in the game of baseball, life throws him a curve ball. Hannibal takes out a couple of individuals that were trying to move in on some his territory. He thinks that the guys he killed were just some small-time hustla’z ...

At twenty-five years old, Michael Stewart was a young Black aspiring artist, deejay, and model, looking to make a name for himself in the vibrant downtown art scene of the early 1980’s New York City. On September 15, 1983, he was brutally beaten by New York City Transit Authority police for allegedly tagging a 14th Street subway station wall. Witnesses reported officers beating him with Billy clubs and choking him with a nightstick. Stewart arrived at Bellevue Hospital hog-tied with no heartbeat and died after thirteen days in a coma.

Today, Americans are debating our criminal justice system with new urgency. Mass incarceration and aggressive police tactics - and their impact on people of color - are feeding outrage and a consensus that something must be done. But what if we only know half the story? In Locking Up Our Own, the Yale legal scholar and former public defender James Forman Jr. weighs the tragic role that some African Americans themselves played in escalating the war on crime.

They say the love of money is the root of all evil, but for Ken Swift, it's the love of a woman. Ken is 21, hurting people for cash to try to pay his way through college, when he lays eyes on Jimi Lee, the woman who will change the course of his entire life. What's meant to be a one-night stand with the Harvard-bound beauty turns into an explosion of sexual chemistry that neither can quit. And when Jimi Lee becomes pregnant, their two very different worlds collide in ways they never could have anticipated.

Vegas Duncan's release from prison is right on time for his older brother Junior's engagement to the voluptuous Sonya Brown. Unfortunately Junior's attempt at happiness comes to a screeching halt when Sonya's husband, the mysterious Brother X, and his army of Muslim hit men declare war on the Duncan clan. Duncan family patriarch LC Duncan has gone up against many foes in his time.

A ruined wedding, mobsters, and an ex who’s stalking her. Will Tess and Beau ever tie the knot? A voice cries out, stopping Beau and Tess’ wedding. Surprised by this wedding crasher’s announcement, the reverend ends the ceremony. The uninvited guest insists Beau is already married and must come to Las Vegas if he wishes to end their marriage. Beau and Tess reluctantly agree but not before consulting their friends. But they’re not just friends. They are the Initiative, a secret covert operation created to help those in need. The team agrees they must go Vegas with Beau and Tess. Upon...

Two teenage brothers must survive the crime, drugs and gang violence of the streets after their mother is forced from the home. A long lost relative turns up on their doorstep with the scheme of a lifetime and a duffle bag for of drugs. Sex, money and murder dominate their lives, devastates their future and it all begins in 1989.

After a reunion with an old friend goes wrong in a Long Island nightclub, Kasheef Williams is forced to protect himself by any means necessary. The only problem is that prying eyes see everything. Those eyes belong to Alija Bell. She runs, but Kasheef sees her face, and he tells her that it's best for her to get temporary amnesia. Afraid for her life and the safety of her daughter, she keeps her mouth shut, but when a tape of the murder surfaces, the only face that is visible is Alija's. Now the police are looking for their eyewitness.

He lost the love of his life as a casualty of the war between the drug cartels. Now KING must face his demons with the loss of Selena, the guilt of killing his parents, and the fact that the two women that were always in his corner have married and moved on with their lives. When his Colombian connect states he needs to move more product and meet an improbable deadline, KING reaches out to the two people he trusts most, the mothers of his two sons. He not only needs to move more weight; he needs to teach the heir apparent to the Colombian Empire how the game works. KING wants to go ...

Good cop Raphael Roberts was ambushed by a bad cop in the first installment. Now his wife and son have to figure out how to live without him. Raphael junior has finally come out of his shell but still has a lot to learn. Luckily his father instilled jewels in his son that will continue to manifest. Brisby is determined to find out who killed her partner and why. She is committed to bringing the killer to justice. In the meantime she moves on within the department and applies the skills and morals imparted into her from her dearly departed partner. Good Cop, Bad Cop 2 is filled with twist ...

Caren Gray manages Belle Vie, a sprawling antebellum plantation that sits between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, where the past and the present coexist uneasily. The estate's owners have turned the place into an eerie tourist attraction, complete with full-dress re-enactments and carefully restored slave quarters. Outside the gates, a corporation with ambitious plans has been busy snapping up land from struggling families who have been growing sugar cane for generations, and now replacing local employees with illegal laborers. Tensions mount when the body of a female migrant worker is found in a shallow grave on the edge of the property.

Easy Rawlins, L.A.'s most reluctant detective, comes home one day to find Easter, the daughter of his friend, Christmas Black, left on his doorstep. Easy knows that this could only mean that ex-marine Black is probably dead, or will be soon. But Easter's appearance is only the beginning, as Easy is immersed in a sea of problems.

Detective Houser wants nothing more than his retirement, but when a murder case involving the WMM firm lands on his desk, he can’t avoid it. All of law enforcement knows that WMM Advertising, also known as We Make Millionaires, is one of the biggest and hardest-to-penetrate fraudulent telemarketing firms in the state of Georgia. A tape recording of a man’s death may finally help Houser make a case against the firm. Calling in Alexis Greenspan, a.k.a. Nina Coles, the top sales associate in the company, Houser is determined to use her to find out the company’s secrets.

In 1992, Los Angeles burned. In the aftermath of the Rodney King beating and subsequent riots, a ground-breaking ceremony at the infamous intersection of Florence and Normandie unearths the body of a Korean liquor store owner. Black private eye Ivan Monk searches for the killer—many suspect the motives for the murder were racial. But then another body turns up, and while the FBI and the Rolling Daltons, the largest gang in the city, dog Monk’s trail, Monk questions who the real perpetrators are and whether he can prevent more from dying, including himself, before he uncovers the truth.

Phox Bello is a fearless, headstrong, high-stepping bombshell of a boss who will do just about anything to secure her empire. The thought of having to collaborate or partner with anyone makes Phox itch with contempt. Hades Metellus is a man who reigns supreme. Everything he touches turns to gold or ash if he so desires. Hades controls everything from his mafia throne, and the power feeds his soul. The thought of having to share space at the top is a concept that he could never wrap his head around, but he better be prepared to get spun. What happens when the two bosses link up?

A vengeful female ringleader heads an expensive show horse kidnapping operation, selling to the black market. One couple loses a much treasured dressage mount. Will Cajun Magic make it back to his rightful owners? Can the Mob push back against the villain's dark ways?

Forced to flee Detroit, ruthless and rotten Kenya and her identical twin, London, have dodged the bullets of a vicious hired hitman and endured the pain of a brutal rape. Now, due to mistaken identity, the girls must deal with Storm's strange disappearance and his partner's heinous murder before it's too late and they're next. Once again the sisters' lives are turned upside down. This time, the consequences could land them both in jail - or dead and unclaimed in the county morgue.

Leonid McGill's spent a lifetime building up his reputation in the New York investigative scene. His seemingly infallible instinct and inside knowledge of the crime world make him the ideal man to help when Phillip Worry comes knocking. Phillip "Catfish" Worry is a 92-year-old Mississippi bluesman who needs Leonid's help with a simple task: Deliver a letter revealing the black lineage of a wealthy heiress and her corrupt father. Unsurprisingly, the opportunity to do a simple favor while shocking the prevailing elite is too much for Leonid to resist.