Norman Kelley

The Head Negro in Charge Syndrome: The Dead End of Black Politics offers a post-civil rights analysis of African American leadership from the 1970s to the eve of the 2006 senate election Barack Obama.

"The Big Mango jumps from New York City to the tropical island-nation of Misericordia, a volcano of pent-up human suffering and rage. A popular uprising led by Father Pierre-Pierre Bernard, a parish priest, provides the island's indigent multitude with a rare moment of freedom and self-rule. But Bernard proves singularly ill-equipped to lead the country as president and is deposed to exile in the U.S. by a right-wing military coup.". "Enter Nina Halligan, the headstrong, street-savy-but-sophisticated private investigator. A former prosecutor, Nina has a sixth sense for scandal and corruption, as well as a troubled history of dragging the people she loves into danger. Goaded into travelling to Washington to help Father Bernard regain his government, Nina's attention turns to the murder of her friend's husband, Michael Debord, an insider in the administration of U.S. President Jeff Benton. Nina's investigation becomes personal as she and her friend Anna head to Misericordia to find Michael's killer, arriving in "the land of mercy" as it is about to explode."--BOOK JACKET.

The widow of Malik Martin, a slain civil rights leader, asks private detective Nina Halligan to search for her missing adult daughter. While doing so, Nina finds herself in the middle of an old FBI COINTELPRO operation called “Black Heat” and the machinations of a power-hungry black tele-evangelist, who is a former lieutenant of Martin’s.

Mystery sensation Pelecanos pens the lead story and edits this groundbreaking collection of stories detailing the seedy underside of the nation's capital. This is not an anthology of ill-conceived and inauthentic political thrillers. Instead, pimps, whores, gangsters, and con-men run rampant in zones of this city that most never hear about.