R.A. St. James

I received this book for free from the author on a drawing on LibraryThing. The book was entertaining, timely and thought provoking. The book is timely since the subject is police treatment of black people. An elite team of black former special forces decide to deal justice to proven unlawful cops. They decide to enact the same treatment on the dirty cops as the same cops have dealt repeatedly to citizens. Of course, this brings up the whole topic of vigilante justice. The story kept me engaged from the beginning through various twists and turns to the end.… (plus d'informations)

Disclaimer: I received this book as an ARC. No compensation was received other than the chance to read this work.

Possible triggers: drug use, violence, PTSD, police violence

This is the third book in the "Darkness Unto The Dawn" trilogy. Reading the first two books in the series is recommended to better understand the story.

Whereas the first book feels more like a spycraft/heist plan, and the second book feels like an action movie, the third book feels most like a political drama, with some action scenes to carry it over from book 2.

Briefly, the fallout from the team's missions and the investigation by the FBI into their work comes to a head.

The pacing feels slowest (out of the three books) in this third installation. This is not a bad thing, but this work is more of a "thinking while you read" compared to the first two books in the series. The pacing of the story feels the most uneven in book 3, but some of that can be attributed to the fact that this work was originally written as one very long book, broken up into three smaller works.

The book overall does a good job of both giving closure overall and leaving some small threads open. There is a point towards the end of this book where there is a moment of mysticism, and some readers may feel that there are one or two moments where reality is slightly suspended, but these contribute to the spiritual and mental tone the writing in the series has taken.

This is a series that has re-readability, and readers will find that they get something different out of the books every time.… (plus d'informations)

Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this work. No compensation was received except for the chance to read this book.

Possible triggers: descriptions of rapes, violence, PTSD

This is the second book in the "Darkness Unto The Dawn" trilogy, and reading the first one is recommended in order to better understand the story.

Briefly, the team carries out their second and third self-appointed missions, with surprising results.

Compared to book 1, this was a much faster-feeling read. It had a much faster overall pacing (seeming more like an action movie) with more action sequences than the first book.

This book does venture more into a socio-political discussion about whether violence can lead to positive, nonviolent, permanent changes in law enforcement and governmental structures. This discussion, while it feels as if it should be an interruption in the story, actually does a good job of tying in perspectives to the action surrounding it.

Recommended for lovers of television shows such as Burn Notice and action/heist films.… (plus d'informations)

Disclaimer: I received this as an LibraryThing Member Giveaway. No compensation was received other than a chance to read this work.

Possible trigger warning: general violence, PTSD, discussions of rape, mental health issues, police violence

This work, the first in a trilogy, is focused on Ishmael "Ish" Carter, a man who left his successful software company to join the US military and fight in Afghanistan. While there, the police shoot and kill his 8 year old daughter by "mistake" when answering a call at a neighbor's house about a possible burglar, who turned out to be the home's owner, a Black man changing a torn window screen. Tired of the violence done by police against the Black community, Ish begins to fight back in his own way, first with lawsuits, then with a more radical approach.

This work is a thriller with some social commentary, but the way this is handled is as an engaging read rather than a book that tells the reader how to feel about the current state of affairs.

This is the author's debut work, and is a solid start as a writer. Overall, the work has tight writing with solid overall pacing. There are one or two points where a line that had been previously mentioned in the work was repeated almost word-for-word, but the occurrences did not detract from the story but were noticeable if you were reading the work in one sitting, as this reviewer did. Even though this is the first in a series, there was enough of a resolution at the end so that the reader did not feel as if the story stopped abruptly.

The story is engaging, and is an interesting look into both the societal discussions about being a minority in America, how the system fails those same communities, and how the backlash in trying to change the system creates new tragedies.

Recommended for those who enjoy series similar to the Jason Bourne books and works by Attica Locke.… (plus d'informations)