Lightning Men

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!