Donald Goines' books are brutal depictions of drug abusers, racist & corrupt cops, lethal gangsters & newly politicized blacks trying to fight these scourges.  Goines, himself, lived a life like a character in one of his 17 books.  He began writing in prison after someone turned him on to the works of Iceberg Slim & was hailed as one of the successors to Chester Himes.  After his release, he rattled off as many as 8 novels a year.  Then he was gunned down at his typewriter while working on his final book, Kenyatta's Last Hit.

This is the first in the  Kenyatta series, and it picks up where Sam Greenlee's The Spook Who Sat by the Door left off.  Billy Good and Jackie Walker are two small-time hoods on the streets of Detroit, but they hit the big-time when they meet up with Kenyatta, a black nationalist ghetto lord.  Kenyatta and his gang have started taking back the streets by killing drug pushers & white cops.  As he tells Billy and Jackie: "Kill the honkie.  That's our rally cry.  Death to Whitey."  Then thing get wild…

(Reviewed:)

Grade: (C+)

Donald Goines Links:
Credentials for Pulp Fiction: Pimp and Drug Addict: The novels of Donald Goines, who died in 1974, are experiencing a resurgence in popularity, fueled by prison literacy programs, hip-hop music and now a new movie. (LOLA OGUNNAIKE, 3/25/04, NY Times)

Book-related and General Links:
    -Donald Goines

GENERAL:
    -African American Mystery Page
    -Can You Dig It? The Original Black Eyes (Thrilling Detective)
    -Can You Dig The New Breed? The New Black Eyes (Thrilling Detective)

If you liked Crime Partners, try:

Greenlee, Sam
  -The Spook who Sat by the Door

Himes, Chester
    -If He Hollers Let Him Go
(Coffin Ed Johnson & Gravedigger Jones Mysteries)
    -Cotton Comes to Harlem
    -The Real Cool Killers
    -The Heat's On
    -The Crazy Kill   (Read Orrin's review, Grade: B)

Mosley, Walter
(Easy Rawlins Mysteries)
    -Devil in a Blue Dress
    -A Red Death
    -White Butterfly
    -Black Betty
    -A Little Yellow Dog
    -Gone Fishin'       (Read Orrin's review, Grade: B)

Sallis, James
    (Lew Griffin Mysteries)
        -Black Hornet
        -Eye of the Cricket
        -The Long-legged Fly

Tidyman, Ernest
    -Shaft
    -Shaft Among the Jews

Copyrighted 1998-2008 by BrothersJudd.com