Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Feb 2024
400 pages
Genre: Thrillers
Paperback Original.
Publication Information
In the vein of Get Out and Razorblade Tears, a feast of noir fiction and probing social commentary that asks us to consider what would happen if reparations were finally charged and exacted.
Nate Evers, a young black political activist, struggles with rage as his people are still being killed in the streets 62 years after Emmett Till. When his little cousin is murdered, Nate shuns the graffiti murals, candlelight vigils, and Twitter hashtags that are commonplace after these senseless deaths. Instead, he leads 3 grief-stricken friends on a mission of retribution, kidnapping the descendants of long-ago perpetrators of hate crimes, confronting the targets with their racist lineages, and forcing them to pay reparations to a community fund. For 3 of the group members, the results mean justice; for Nate – pure revenge.
Not all targets go quietly into the night, though, and Nate and his friends' world spirals out of control when they confront the wrong man. Now the leader of a white supremacist group is hot on their tail as is a jaded lawman with some disturbingly racist views of his own.
As the 4 vigilantes fight to thwart their ruthless pursuers, they're forced to accept an age-old truth: "Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves."
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.
"[A] powerful debut...propulsive narrative, lucid prose, breakneck pacing, and confident handling of controversial subject matter make him a writer to watch." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A bravura debut ... A provocative, page-turning treatment of racism in America ... rarely captured as powerfully or affectingly as it is here." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"A compelling and exciting debut." —FirstClue
"Jahmal Mayfield's Smoke Kings brings a fresh and fierce new voice to crime fiction. Smoke Kings is a stunning book that takes the reader on an intense and harrowing journey that is truly unforgettable. Consider me a big fan." —Don Winslow, New York Times Bestselling author of City on Fire
"Fearless, soulful, and timely. Smoke Kings is a gripping revenge thriller and sly social commentary all rolled into one. Everyone needs to read this book!" —Steve Hamilton, Edgar Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of The Second Life of Nick Mason
"As tightly plotted as the best thriller, the true power of Smoke Kings lies in its pointed, nuanced rage. Rage at an America that steadfastly refuses to acknowledge - much less address - the brutal treatment of its earliest Black inhabitants, and how that refusal and its attendant violence echoes throughout the centuries to right now, today, this moment. With Mayfield's fearless, incandescent prose, I was hooked from page one." —Keith Rosson, author of Fever House
This information about Smoke Kings was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Jahmal Mayfield was born in Virginia but currently resides in New Jersey. In addition to writing crime fiction, he serves as the director of a nonprofit program that provides employment support to people with disabilities. Smoke Kings was inspired by Kimberly Jones' passionate viral video, "How can we win?"
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