Gods & Gangsters: Mystery Thriller Suspense Novel

by SLMN

Overview

A strong...tale of operatic moral corrosion.-Kirkus Reviews-

The son of a hustler, it’s no surprise that Power has followed in his family’s footsteps and made a name for himself as one of the most respected hustlers on the streets of QueensBoro. Along with his best friend and partner Kane, the duo create a super group that sets out to take the streets and hip-hop world by storm. But soon Power finds himself in the middle of a love triangle gone-wrong with a label owner and his lead singer, Egypt, which threatens the freedom and livelihood of everyone involved.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780998767444
Publisher:	Kingston Imperial
Publication date:	07/28/2020
Series:	Gods & Gangsters , #1
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	275
File size:	498 KB

About the Author

SLMN is a writing duo made up of two unique talents. In one life he has fought injustice wherever he has seen it, spending several years in developing nations helping those who couldn't for whatever reason help themselves. He worked on projects to bring fresh water to areas without it, to provide sex and health education and secure vital aid in war torn regions. He has served on peace keeping forces, campaigned against the deployment of landmines and in the last decade devoted his life to ecological issues, most notably combating the illegal trade in endangered species. He has witnessed atrocities no man should ever see, and glimpsed the secret inner workings of the world run by the rich and powerful making him enemies of some of the most dangerous men in the world. Never once has he walked away from a fight. In another life SLMN has produced a number of movies and is both a New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author.

Editorial Reviews

"Scary conspiracy thriller...Clever." 
—Publishers Weekly on Sunfail    

"Frighteningly realistic...With fast-paced action....a fun and exciting read with a wide appeal perfect for fans of complex series heroes like Jack Reacher and Joe Ledger, with a dash of Dan Brown sensibility." 
—Booklist  on Sunfail   

"Does fiction get much darker ... Deliberate and creepy, this taps into genuine human traits like fear, greed, and

From the Publisher

"Scary conspiracy thriller...Clever."
—Publishers Weekly on Sunfail

"Frighteningly realistic...With fast-paced action....a fun and exciting read with a wide appeal perfect for fans of complex series heroes like Jack Reacher and Joe Ledger, with a dash of Dan Brown sensibility."
—Booklist on Sunfail

"Does fiction get much darker ... Deliberate and creepy, this taps into genuine human traits like fear, greed, and stupidity."
—Library Journal' on Sunfail

"Any readers who have been fans of Dan Brown's conspiracies will enjoy."
—New York Journal of Books on Sunfail

SLMN

"[A] heart-thumping thriller...K'wan does a masterful job of keeping readers on their toes right up to the very last page."

—Publishers Weekly

"Top-notch street lit...one of the top urban fiction novels of the year." - Library Journal Starred Review on Diamonds and Pearl

"K'wan steadily builds to a frantic, movie-worthy climax."

—Entertainment Weekly

"One of hip-hop fiction's hottest authors."

-King

"The legacies of Iceberg Slim and Donald Goines are forever preserved."

—Upscale

K'Wan

2020-10-26
Violent crime and romantic jealousy entangle a rising rap group in this urban thriller.

Longtime friends Power, Kane, Messiah, Lil’ Earl, and Ty Five$ call themselves Q.B.C., short for Queens Boro Crew, having grown up in the projects there. When Power and Kane form a hip-hop group, they naturally dub it Q.B.C. and continue criminal activities with the crew while making quite a name for themselves recording for Paul Duppy of Notorious Records. At the age of 17, Power gets off on a murder charge when Kane and Messiah gun down the cop planning to testify against him. The crew travels to North Carolina on a tip from Lil’ Earl’s cousin Tyrone “Ty” Braswell, who knows of an easily burgled pawnshop with a large stash of guns. But things go sideways when Ty mistakenly leaves DNA behind; three years later, a nightclub shooting is traced to the robbery, leading to the arrest of Q.B.C. members. A rising star at Notorious Records is Egypt Moore, who’s talented, sexy—and an undercover cop. She’s been tasked with infiltrating the music world because Xavier Montenegro, commonly known as The Colombian, is laundering drug money through rap labels. Egypt and Power soon begin a relationship that, while hot and heavy, deepens into something more. Nevertheless, as part of her job, Egypt must pretend to betray Power with Kane, causing bad blood between the men and breaking up Q.B.C. Power begins a solo career; Egypt becomes a worldwide success; and Duppy heads for a fall, but not before exerting his power to humiliate women. Meanwhile, The Colombian is holding all the strings, manipulating the players toward his own secretive ends.In his latest crime novel, SLMN offers a complex plot that jumps backward and forward in time from an anchoring narrative in which two White detectives interrogate a Black suspect who’s at first unnamed. The hip-hop scene is reflected in several elements; the chapters are called tracks, for example, and are accompanied by symbols for pause, rewind, play, and other functions. Also reflective of some trends in rap music is the story’s hardcore pornographic and usually misogynistic sex together with the merciless, graphic violence that’s vividly—for some readers, too vividly—described (“Messiah sat on Peanut’s legs and without hesitation, plunged the red hot curler straight up his ass….When Messiah extracted the curling iron, the putrid smell of hot shit and blood instantly filled the room to a nauseating level. Green diarrhea ran from Peanut’s ass like a cracked sewer”). The sense of peering into a powerful world unknown to most readers gives the story a compelling hook, and the high-octane plot gains authenticity from SLMN’s mastery of street slang in dialogue like “They all gonna be tryin’ to speak the thun language. What the drilly wit’ that tho!” But keeping track of the storylines can be difficult even with cues. For example, after an interrogation scene, Track 3 skips around considerably: 10 years earlier, present day, six months earlier, five years earlier, present day, 15 years earlier, 10 years later, eight years later, and present day.

A strong, if sometimes confusing, tale of operatic moral corrosion.

Kirkus Reviews