Jahmal Mayfield- Smoke Kings- @jahmal_mayfield @melvillehouse #BlogTour

Nate Evers, a young black political activist, struggles with rage as his people are still being killed in the streets 62 years after Emmett Till. When his little cousin is murdered, Nate shuns the graffiti murals, candlelight vigils, and Twitter hashtags that are commonplace after these senseless deaths. Instead, he leads  three grief-stricken friends on a mission of retribution, kidnapping the descendants of long-ago perpetrators of hate crimes, confronting the targets with their racist lineages, and forcing them to pay reparations to a community fund. For three of the group members, the results mean justice; for Nate – pure revenge. Not all targets go quietly into the night, though, and Nate and his friends’ world spirals out of control when they confront the wrong man. Now the leader of a white supremacist group is hot on their tail as is a jaded lawman with some disturbingly racist views of his own. As the four vigilantes fight to thwart their ruthless pursuers, they re forced to accept an age-old truth: ‘Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.’

If you prefer your crime fiction with a hard edge and which encourages you to take a good, long look at the most marginalised and persecuted members of society, then Smoke Kings is definitely the book for you. Taking its inspiration from the writings of African American sociologist W. E. B. Dubois,

I am the Smoke King,

I am black!

I am darkening with song,

I am hearkening to wrong!

I will be black as blackness can—

The blacker the mantle, the mightier the man!

and Kimberley Jones’ video How Can We Win? , this is an extremely powerful novel of rage and compassion, good and evil, trust and betrayal, centred on the vigilante actions of four friends, after experiencing the gut wrenching loss of a young brother, cousin and friend. As they seek to avenge the sins of the past perpetrated on people of colour by (predominantly) white aggressors as recompense for their loss, they find themselves caught up in a maelstrom of violence and revenge. The book brutally exposes the malignant and endemic hold that racism still has on society at large, and posits the question of how should the sins of the past be paid for now. With 4743 lynchings documented from 1882-1968, it seems like there is much recompense to be made. As one character comments the lynchings are

“just one ugly part of it. Slavery, wage inequality, inferior educational opportunities, inadequate health care, mass incarceration. And on and on. Most of it systemic and purposefully carried out by white people.” 

and this is what Mayfield so astutely and powerfully explores, through Nate, Joshua, Isiah and Rachel’s actions, through the racism inherent in the man who pursues them, and by those who seek to wreak revenge on them.

I thought the dynamics of the relationships between the four main characters was beautifully done, as doubt, mistrust, and guilt begins to muddy the waters of their initially shared belief in their course of revenge and reparation. As Isiah begins to question their methods and motivation, after a harrowing assignment in Alabama, Mayfield depicts beautifully the spiralling descent into an increasingly fractured group, with Rachel bearing the brunt of the animosity that builds between Nate, Joshua and Isiah. I thought her character embodied all the doubt and frustrations many women encounter, not only as a woman of colour but seeking to protect those she loves the most in the differing relationships she has with the three men. I liked the forthright and focused motivations of Nate and Joshua and the way that their hard-headed, noble and purposeful, but sometimes foolhardy, actions came for a place of extreme grief and sorrow, giving them a justifiable reason, in their view, for revenge. Isiah represents a different position within the group, the still small voice that gains in volume, as he begins to question the group’s motivations, and could ultimately be their undoing.

Isiah leads us to question, along with the characters, how much good is served by revenge, and what are the repercussions for all these characters’ lives having started from a position of justifiable nobility. Is the motivation for revenge, a violent catalyst for increasingly brutal actions, or is all violence justifiable when looked at in the context of the original crimes they are avenging now? Then the character of Mason, the white ex-law enforcement officer, contracted to track down the group, represents the casual, unacceptable racism exhibited by many white people, where he believes what he believes because he is rarely challenged to think differently, despite his daughter’s relationship with a man of colour and mixed race grandchild. His lack of self awareness, and self questioning of his backward views is sadly, and disturbingly, normal, and only when confronted by those with even more extreme racist views later in the book, and some salient facts brought home to him through the character of Elizabeth (who among other things charts the history of lynchings in America) does his tentative journey to greater awareness and empathy begin.

I loved the thorny issues Smoke Kings presented, couched within the parameters of an incredibly readable  thriller, and how it made you step back and look at your own perception of  racism and marginalisation, and how much can the sins of the past can be justifiably avenged in the present. I thought that the opposing views, beliefs and experiences of the characters added much to the overall theme of racism, reparation, loyalty and atonement. Too often books are labelled as thought-provoking, but in this case, this description is thoroughly deserved as it is an extremely multi-faceted novel. With the U.S. as racially divided, and having become even more so in the era of the ‘orange one’,  Smoke Kings is a powerful, intelligent and necessary read, encapsulating perfectly an examination of modern society along with the grit and thrust of a highly readable thriller.

The book has shades of both the writing style of S A Cosby and the themes of Percival Everett’s The Trees, so if these are your jam you’re going to love this. I was seriously impressed with Mayfield’s raw and uncompromising style and his sublime control of the narrative, and think he can definitely count on me reading whatever he publishes next.

Highly recommended.

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Jahmal Mayfield writes gritty crime novels that touch on large social issues. He was born in Virginia but currently resides in New Jersey. In addition to writing, he serves as the director of a nonprofit program that provides employment support to people with disabilities. Mayfield is a husband and father of two young adults who are both embarrassed by his frequent forays down the rabbit holes of YouTube to view old 90s hip hop videos. SMOKE KINGS was inspired by Kimberly Jones’ passionate viral video, “How can we win?” Visit the author’s website at  jahmalmayfield.com

(With thanks to Melville Press for the ARC)

Buying links: 

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