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White Heat
by Paul D. Marks
Synopsis
P.I. Duke Rogers finds himself in a combustible situation in this racially charged thriller. His case might have to wait…
The immediate problem: getting out of South Central Los Angeles in one piece during the 1992 “Rodney King” riots and that’s just the beginning of his problems.
Duke finds an old “friend” for a client. The client’s “friend,” an up and coming African-American actress, ends up dead. Duke knows his client did it. Feeling guilty that he inadvertently helped the killer find the victim, he wants to track down the client/killer. He starts his mission by going to the dead actress’ family in South Central L.A.—and while there the “Rodney King” riots ignite.
While Duke searches for the killer he must also deal with the racism of his partner, Jack, and from Warren, the murder victim’s brother, who is a mirror image of Jack in that department. He must also confront his own possible latent racism—even as he’s in an interracial relationship with the dead woman’s sister.
Book Details:
Genre: Mystery, Crime, Thriller
Published by: Down & Out Books
Publication Date: May 21st 2018
Number of Pages: 340
ISBN: 9781370062423
Series: Duke Rogers #1
Purchase Links: Amazon 🔗 | Barnes & Noble 🔗 | Google 🔗 | Goodreads 🔗
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Read an excerpt:
We came to Florence and Normandie. Half a block away the cops were regrouping. Or retreating. Or hiding out. It was hard to tell. There was a swarm of them, but they weren’t doing much of anything. People were looting, throwing rocks, bottles and the like right under their noses. As we left the intersection, I glanced back. A large semi was pulling into the intersection. We continued away from the intersection. Later I learned that this was where Reginald Denny, the driver of the semi, was pulled from the truck. Beaten within an inch of his life. We were gone before it happened. But I still have pangs of guilt for having been so close and having done so little. Now I know how lucky we were.
In a sense it was a quid pro quo situation. Tiny’s black face was my passport among his people. My white face was his insurance that the cops might just leave him alone—if they knew he was with me. That might have been why he wanted to help me out. Protection. But it wasn’t an uneasy truce. I felt comfortable with him. Like we’d known each other all our lives. Maybe we had. The last thirty minutes had been a lifetime.
We crouched behind a low wall at a service station, surveying the situation. He watched two sides. I watched the other two, covering each other’s backs. We were both armed; neither of us wanted to use our guns.
Noise barked from every direction. Sirens. Shouts. Choppers hovering. Shots. Too many shots. It all blended into a cacophony of confusion. The din was ear-shattering and lifeless, inert, all at the same time.
“Why’re you helping me?” I asked Tiny as we scoped the street out. He never answered my question, though I asked several more times.
There was an explosion in the distance, then the shock wave. A new column of black smoke appeared every few minutes. Slow-motion funnel clouds.
“Man, don’t they know they’re tearing down their own goddamn neighborhoods,” he said, scanning the horizon. “Where’re they gonna get food and clothes when all this burns to the ground?
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About the Author:
Paul D. Marks is the author of the Shamus Award-Winning mystery-thriller White Heat. Publishers Weekly calls White Heat a “taut crime yarn.” His story Ghosts of Bunker Hill was voted #1 in the 2016 Ellery Queen Readers Poll. Howling at the Moon (EQMM 11/14) was short-listed for both the 2015 Anthony and Macavity Awards. Midwest Review calls his novella Vortex “…a nonstop staccato action noir.” Marks’ story Windward, from the Coast to Coast: Private Eyes from Sea to Shining Sea anthology, has been selected for the 2018 Best American Mystery Stories (fall 2018), edited by Louise Penny & Otto Penzler.
Catch Up With Our Author On:
Website 🔗, Goodreads 🔗, Twitter 🔗, & Facebook 🔗!
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GIVEAWAY
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Go HERE to follow the tour.
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Thanks so much for visiting fuonlyknew and Good Luck!
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The synopsis is intriguing. Putting this on my TBR list.
I do love thrillers:)
wow a racially charged thriller, huh? I’m curious! Racism is such a hard topic to tackle! Usually hit or miss.Kudos to the author for trying!
I know. Such a tough topic and it usually hooks me to try the book:)
Thank you, Daniela. If you get the book, I hope you’ll like it. It is a tough subject and some of it is very uncomfortable to write (and read) about. It can be pretty intense. Anyway, I hope you win and, either way, if you read the book I hope it connects with you.
Love thrillers. Thanks for sharing and the giveaway.
sherry @ fundinmental
Thanks for your comment, Sherry. Hope you’ll like the book.
What is an ASIN? I visited the book on Amazon but don’t know what that means.
Cathy, ASIN is an Amazon thing: “ASIN stands for Amazon Standard Identification Number. It’s a 10-charcter alphanumeric unique identifier that’s assigned by Amazon.com and its partners. It’s used for product-identification within Amazon.com organization.”
can you tell where to find it? I looked at the product info and it does have some alphanumeric numbers but they aren’t identified as AsIn, they say ISBN-10
Thank you for sharing White Heat, F U Only Knew. And you’re right, it’s a tough topic. Hard to walk a fine line when writing it. Hopefully I’ve succeeded, at least mostly.
I love a good thriller and I’m happy to share. I hope your tour is a smashing success:)
I do enjoy thrillers and this one sounds really good. I like that it is set during the L.A. riots. I remember how volatile that event was. Thanks for sharing!
I know. I remember that too! Sure adds to my curiosity.
I love thrillers and books that cover difficult subjects often add that something extra.
sherry @ fundinmental
Yep. And I thought of you when I read the synopsis!