Tuesday, November 26, 2024

Ash Dark As Night

Ash Dark As Night by Gary Phillips, 295 pages

It's 1965 in Los Angeles and photographer Harry Ingram is risking his neck to document the Watts riots that are raging in the city. When he captures a damning photo of police officers killing an unarmed young Black man, Ingram is thrust into the spotlight himself, drawing unwanted attention from the police and others who aren't so keen on what the people are fighting for. However, the notoriety helps him out as Ingram searches for a man who went missing during the riots, a man who may have been involved in some nefarious deeds.

The era and noir feel of this book are fantastic — it captures the unrest of the time and the grittiness of Ingram's life perfectly. However, this is billed as a mystery, and that seems to take a backseat to all of the protests and investigation involved with the civil rights movement. So it's a good book, just maybe not a mystery.

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