Description

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The mystery that launched Gary Phillips's career: Black private eye Ivan Monk investigates the murder of a Korean shop owner in the aftermath of the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

This reissued edition features an introduction by Walter Mosley.

In 1992, Los Angeles burned. In the aftermath of the Rodney King beating and subsequent riots, a ground-breaking ceremony at the infamous intersection of Florence and Normandie unearths the body of a Korean shop owner. Black private eye Ivan Monk searches for the killer—many suspect the motives for the murder were racial. But then another body turns up, and while the FBI and the Rolling Daltons—the largest gang in the city—dog Monk’s trail, Monk begins to question just how many people will be involved, and how many will die before he can find the truth.

About the Author

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Gary Phillips has published novels, comics, novellas, short stories and edited or co-edited several anthologies, including the Anthony-winning The Obama Inheritance: Fifteen Stories of Conspiracy Noir. Almost 30 years after its publication, his debut, Violent Spring, was named one of the essential crime novels of Los Angeles. He also was a story editor on Snowfall, an FX show about crack and the CIA in 1980s South Central, where he grew up.

Praise For…

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Praise for Violent Spring

“In the tradition of Dashiell Hammett’s Continental Op, Ivan Monk takes on a corrupt world . . . He makes us feel that the war he’s waging is for our own salvation.”
—Walter Mosley, creator of the Easy Rawlins series
 
“A landmark novel set during and after the 1992 L.A. riots.”
—The New York Times Book Review
 
“A crime classic.”
—The Washington Post

"Violent Spring peels away the studded rind of the golden orange, exposing its bête noir core.”
—Mike Davis, author of City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles
 
“Tough, smart, and unabashedly political. Monk is (to paraphrase basketball star Charles Barkley) a P.I. for the ’90s, and Violent Spring is Phillips’s perfect intro to him.”
—Gar Anthony Haywood, author of the Aaron Gunner mysteries
 
"A welcome read . . . [with] intelligence, political sensibilities, and street smarts. Straight-to-the-point narrative."
—Quarterly Black Review of Books

“Monk’s sense of absurdity and his perfectly emulsified blend of toughness and tenderness make him one of crime fiction’s most appealing heroes.”
—Booklist

“Wild, freewheeling L.A. noir.” 
—CrimeReads

“Gary Phillips knows Los Angeles and gives readers a realistic, gritty portrait of this city in turmoil through the eyes of his African American P.I.”
–The Armchair Detective

"An interesting who-done-it."
—African American Literature Review

“A titillating murder mystery. Phillips keeps you riveted on each page . . . He takes you down the front streets and in the back doors of our Los Angeles.”
—Turning Point magazine