Darktown

This novel successfully combines the pleasures of the best crime fiction with a story that anatomises the kind of racial tensions that plague America today -- Nick Rennison * The Sunday Times * A terrific story that raises issues that have not yet vanished -- Marcel Berlins * The Times * Sudden violence and a seeping sense of unease are leavened with glimpses of light; Darktown feels like a state of mind as much as a place, fighting for better times to come. * North and South Magazine * This socially resonant and morally complex literary thriller is a vivid, smart, intricately plotted saga exploring race, law enforcement, and the uneven scales of justice. It is a book to make you think. * Crime Review * Darktown is also immensely successful as both a thriller and a historical novel * Morning Star * A gritty, beautifully written police procedural doubling as a searing indictment of the racial tensions that then and now bedevil American society * Irish Independent * Extremely evocative in bringing the pre-civil rights South to life * Booklist * A hard-boiled masterpiece . . brutal, harrowing, full of anger yet atmospheric, compelling and layered with hope. A hard as nails gem. * Weekend Sport * A novel that couldn't be timelier. * O Magazine * Mullen is a wonderful architect of intersecting plotlines and unexpected answers . . . Compelling works of fiction such as Mullen's walk a fine line between art that reminds us of horrors past and art that trades on them with pieces too unfinished to play with * Washington Post * Gripping . . . melds an intense plot with fully realised characters. * Associated Press * I LOVED Darktown. It just grabbed and dragged me into such a brutal and little-known past. An ambitious and original tale of murder where the heat and brutality rise off the page in a cruel and divided city * Dreda Say Mitchell * Mullen is skilled at bringing the past to life, both socially and visually . . . fans of well-written literary thrillers will want this expert example * Library Journal * This page-turner reads like the best of James Ellroy * Publishers Weekly * With a masterly sense of place, it shines a light on an uncomfortable period of American race relations which mirrors the struggles it still faces today, making it both shocking and deeply relevant * Express * Fine Southern storytelling meets hard-boiled crime in a tale that connects an overlooked chapter of history to our own continuing struggles with race today * Charles Frazier, author of Cold Mountain * A fine, unflinching example of the increasingly widespread use of crime fiction to explore social issues; its plot is gripping -- AD Miller * The Economist * A complicated crime fiction that melds an intense plot with fully realized characters * Daily Mail * From the very first page of Darktown, I was stunned, mesmerized, and instantly a huge fan of Tom Mullen. Beyond the history and the thrilling mystery, the book's soul lies in the burgeoning partnership (and dare I say friendship) at the center of the book. It's a reminder of the ties that cut across race in America. There is nothing I love more in a book than hope. * Attica Locke, author of Black Water Rising * A terrific story that raises issues that have not vanished. -- Marcel Berlins * The Times * Fascinating, grim and unsettling, this is a story of violent and ingrained racism, political corruption, conspiracy and almost unbearable psychological pressure * Guardian * One incendiary image ignites the next in this highly combustible procedural, set in the city's rigidly segregated black neighborhoods during the pre-civil-rights era and written with a ferocious passion that'll knock the wind out of you. * New York Times * Mullen blends the classic ingredients of det-fic noir with a well-researched and searing portrayal of pre-civil rights racial division. Magnificent and shocking * Sunday Times * Superb * Ken Follett * A brilliant blending of crime, mystery, and American history. Terrific entertainment. * Stephen King *