3 of 5 stars

A good reference loaded with slick shots of paperback covers. The book is divided into essays that focus on specific topics or individual authors. Racism and sexism are major themes and sadly the issues addressed by the novels are still relevant, sometimes even more so, today. My favorite essay was also the first one, the excellent piece by Scott Alderberg, “Survival Mode: The Crime Fiction of Charles Himes”. Two other highlights were “Hog Butcher, Ronald L. Fair” by Michael Gonzales and “Sons of Darkness, Sons of Light, John A. Williams” by Andrew Nette (one of the editors of this volume).