Lightning Men
Ratings1
Average rating5
15
Ratings1
Average rating5
"Reads like the best of James Ellroy."--Publishers Weekly (starred review, on Darktown) "Mullen is a wonderful architect of intersecting plotlines and unexpected answers."--The Washington Post, on Darktown From the acclaimed author of The Last Town on Earth comes the gripping follow-up to Darktown. Officer Denny Rakestraw and "Negro Officers" Lucius Boggs and Tommy Smith have their hands full in a 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 James Ellroy and Dennis Lehane, Mullen demonstrates in Lightning Men why he's celebrated for writing crime fiction "with a nimble sense of history ... quick on its feet and vividly drawn" (Dallas Morning News)"--
Featured Series
2 primary booksDarktown is a 2-book series with 2 primary works first released in 2016 with contributions by Thomas Mullen and Claes Göran Green.
Reviews with the most likes.
4.5/5 stars
Thomas Mullen's follow up to Darktown is the intricately plotted Lightning Men which again takes place in the segregated Atlanta, Georgia of 1950. Melding the genres of mystery and historical fiction we follow the day in and day out police beat of “Negro Officers,” Lucius Boggs and Tommy Smith.
Multiple storylines/threads are interwoven in this police procedural:
How do Boggs and Smith effectively “police” when some white officers are members of the Ku Klux Klan?
How do Boggs and Smith support/protect black families as they start to move into predominantly white neighborhoods?
Additionally, Officer Denny Rakestraw, is back again as well, and dealing with brother-in-law Dale, who is a member of the KKK, whereas Denny has refused to be a member. Denny continues to struggle with how to help Boggs and Smith, without drawing too much negative attention to himself from his fellow white officers on the force.
Mullen's superior storytelling shows us the dignity of these first “Negro Officers” with the ongoing inequities they had to deal with in their jobs, and that moving towards “separate is not equal” took courage, persistence, and personal risk, and many would argue still does in 2019!
