Lightning Men by Thomas Mullen, Book Review

'Abandon hope all ye who enter here.' This is where personal drama is magnified by community conflict - and where crime meets social history. By George, it's tough. Following on from the critically acclaimed Darktown (nominated for two CWA daggers), Lightning Men explores the violent, corrupt and racist underbelly of 1950 Atlanta. The KKK are still influencing from behind the scenes to enforce segregation and white supremacy. White neighbourhoods are struggling in a variety of ways to keep blacks out. Some will go to any lengths and soon a murder is committed. 

This is a police procedural with a difference in that we are following the exploits of two forces: the white often heavy-handed powerful force and the small struggling black force employed to keep order in the overpopulated poor black areas in the face of violent drug wars. Black lives didn’t matter much then either, it seems. 

The author Thomas Mullen is a talented American writer who has won prizes for his historical fiction and true crime. He and his family live in Atlanta.

Published in 2017 in Britain by Little, Brown.