When Ghosts Come Home

When Ghosts Come Home by Wiley Cash, 290 pages

As sheriff of a small county in North Carolina, Winston Barnes is not used to dealing with too many dead bodies, especially not those that have been murdered. Yet when he wakes up in the middle of the night to the sound of a plane landing at the tiny regional airport by his house, that's exactly what he finds: a murdered Black man near his abandoned car and a crashed airplane. While he begins the investigation, Barnes must also contend with a meddling FBI team (who seem to only see Barnes as a taxi service for their specialists) and a blatantly racist (but rich and well-liked among some of the community) challenger in the rapidly approaching election.

While this sounds like the basis for a cracking good and challenging mystery novel, it's much more character driven, focusing largely on Barnes and his daughter, who has recently come to stay with him after the death of her newborn son. It's not a particularly cheerful novel, nor is it particularly action-packed. But if you're looking for a slower murder mystery with plenty of commentary on race, this might be up your alley. 

I can't breathe

I can't breathe: a killing on Bay Street / Matt Taibbi, 322 pages

This book recounts the life and death of Eric Garner, a black man who was killed by police using an illegal choke hold for the crime of selling illegal cigarettes.  But this book does not paint Eric as a saint, or as a sinner, but as a man who tried, a man who loved his family and was proud of his kids.  A man who wanted to be a good father and husband but did not always measure up.  At a younger age, he had dealt drugs and served time thus effectively limiting his options before he had a chance to even understand the results of his actions.  He was a funny guy, and had a command of numbers and sports statistics.  He was well liked.  After his death, his daughter Erica became a well-known activist who tried to get justice for her father's death.  This book was published before her tragic death early in 2018.  I wish there was no need for books like this.  Taibbi does a good job of showing the big picture, delving into the legal system, policing and bigger policies that affect all of us but not as tragically as Eric Garner. 

The Black Hand: the Epic War Between a Brilliant Detective and the Deadliest Secret Society in American History

The Black Hand / Stephan Talty, 298 pp.

Joseph Petrosino is an American hero that most of us have never heard of.  In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a form of organized crime developed in Italian-American communities which was new for its time.  Members of the mysterious Black Hand would kidnap people, in particular entirely innocent children, and demand cooperation with their protection racket in exchange for the prisoner's life.  Talty draws a skilful portrait of the helpless terror families faced, and of the idealistic, almost supernaturally courageous Petrosino, the first Italian-American detective of the New York police force.

A great all-around slice of history, Talty is especially strong when looking at the effects of prejudice on policing; in this case, the largely Irish NYPD saw the Black Hand's predations as just Italians doing their violent Italian thing.  The result was that the Black Hand grew unchecked for years before Petrosino stubbornly climbed the ranks and pushed for more vigorous policing of his community.  Eerily and depressingly similar to Jill Leovy's analysis of under-policing of African-American communities in Ghettoside.

Ghettoside: a True Story of Murder

An intense read by an LA Times journalist covering the violent crime epidemic in South Central Los Angeles by telling the story of one young man whose life ended needlessly and tragically, and the detective who doggedly pursued his killers.  Leovy's thesis is that the exceptionally high murder rates in South Central and other urban pockets across the US are the result of a kind of lawlessness which stems from several factors, most importantly law enforcement's tepid response to violent crimes in these areas.  Leovy's analysis points to vigorous police activity in response to drug offenses, while high numbers of murders remain unsolved.  In fact, according to Leovy, in many cases of drive-bys and gang homicide, large numbers of people in the community know who the responsible parties are, but are afraid or unwilling to come forward.  In her telling, most residents of these neighborhoods urgently desire a stronger police presence.

Leovy makes excellent points and reveals some top-notch research on patterns of violence.  And mostly this was very readable, although eventually I grew tired of her endless descriptions of the police officer who solved the central murder case in the book.  Although her data and thesis indicate otherwise, her insistence on the officer's rigor, energy, and doggedness imply that this is a matter of changing the mindset of a few score LAPD detectives.  And I can't entirely swallow any discussion of out-of-control violence which doesn't address the ubiquity of guns in our society.