Ash Dark as Night
Gary Phillips
(Author)
21,000+ Reviews
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Description
In the follow-up to One-Shot Harry, fearless crime photographer and occasional private eye Harry Ingram finds himself in the LAPD's crosshairs after capturing damning evidence of police brutality. An atmospheric dive into a city on the brink that's brimming with remarkable historical detail, Ash Dark as Night is perfect for fans of Walter Mosley and James Ellroy. Los Angeles, August 1965. Anger and pent-up frustrations boil over in the Watts neighborhood after a traffic stop of two Black motorists. As the Watts riots explode, crime photographer Harry Ingram snaps photos at the scene, including images of the police as they unleash batons, dogs, and water hoses on civilians. When he captures the image of an unarmed activist being shot down by the cops, he winds up in the hospital, beaten, his camera missing. Proof of the unjust killing seems lost--until Ingram's girlfriend, Anita Claire, retrieves the hidden film in a daring rescue. The photo makes front-page news. A recuperating Ingram is approached by Betty Payton, a comrade of Anita's mother, who wants Ingram's help tracking down her business associate Moses "Mose" Tolbert, last seen during the riots. Ingram follows the investigation down a rabbit hole of burglary rings, bank robberies, looted cash, and clandestine agendas--all the while grappling with his newfound fame, which puts him in the sightlines of LAPD's secretive intelligence division. Ash Dark as Night is a nail-biting ride-along through midcentury Los Angeles with a crime fiction legend in the driver's seat.
Product Details
Price
$18.95
$17.62
Publisher
Soho Crime
Publish Date
May 13, 2025
Pages
312
Dimensions
0.0 X 0.0 X 0.0 inches | 0.81 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9781641296762
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About the Author
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 thirty years after its publication, his debut, Violent Spring, was named one of the essential crime novels of Los Angeles. He was also a writer and co-producer on Snowfall, a show streaming on Hulu about crack and the CIA in 1980s South Central, where he grew up.
Reviews
Praise for Ash Dark as Night A Parade Best Mystery Book of 2024 "Evocative . . . This novel is steeped in period details like snap-brim hats and ragtop Chevy Bel Air convertibles . . . But it's Harry's clear-eyed take on the fallen world around him that makes this series so powerful."
--Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air "Excellent . . . Phillips' descriptions of the utter conflagration that was Watts as well as the mysterious fictional events that follow capture the spirit of the social and political upheaval of 1960s Los Angeles with a veracity that chilled me."
--Paula Woods, Los Angeles Times "[Phillips] has evoked this milieu in many sharply rendered novels over the past three decades. Ash Dark as Night shows him at the top of his game."
--Tom Nolan, The Wall Street Journal
"One of the high points of the year for mystery fans."
--Parade "Phillips' meticulous research opens a window into events of the mid-1960s, showing the politics, changing culture and attitudes of the day . . . A showcase for Phillips' strong storytelling skills and Harry's camera work."
--Oline Cogdil, South Florida Sun Sentinel "The most impressive aspects of this story are the accurate historical settings. We see and feel LA's poorer neighborhoods and inhabitants, how its people survive, interact, work and play. The novel's depiction of political and law enforcement leaders closely follows actual history."
--Historical Novels Review "Outstanding . . . Phillips folds real historical figures, including TV journalist Louis Lomax, and events into a complex narrative of shifting alliances that captures the urgency and volatility of the mid-'60s. The results rank with the best of Walter Mosley in the canon of Los Angeles noir."
--Publishers Weekly, Starred Review "Like Walter Mosley, his obvious model, Phillips is less interested in telling a story than evoking a world--and what a world!"
--Kirkus Reviews "Hardboiled, gritty, and fresh, Phillips's latest is for fans of action/detective stories."
--Library Journal Praise for Gary Phillips
"Phillips is a storyteller first . . . The wounds of 1963, and the foreshadowing of both better days and harsher ones, feel unnervingly fresh, and a reminder that progress, much as we wish otherwise, never adheres to a linear timeline."
--The New York Times Book Review "Phillips takes readers deep into another world and time: its jokes, home furnishings, baloney-meatloaf-and-hot-dog-heavy meals; its hateful slurs, 'invisible' racial boundaries and cautiously hopeful possibilities."
--The Washington Post "Propulsive . . . One-Shot Harry crackles with authenticity, and its resilient hero seems resourceful and tough enough to propel any number of sequels."
--The Wall Street Journal "For thirty years Phillips has been a must-read writer, and One-Shot Harry is probably his best ever--tense and suspenseful, of course, but also deep, resonant and intelligent. It's a story that needed to be told, and therefore a book that needs to be read."
--Lee Child "In the tradition of Dashiell Hammett . . . Makes us feel that the war he's waging is for our own salvation."
--Walter Mosley, author of the Easy Rawlins series "Gary Phillips is my kind of crime writer."
--Sara Paretsky, New York Times bestselling author "Gary Phillips writes tough and gritty parables about life and death on the mean streets . . . his is a voice that should be heard and celebrated."
--Michael Connelly, author of Void Moon and Angels Flight
--Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air "Excellent . . . Phillips' descriptions of the utter conflagration that was Watts as well as the mysterious fictional events that follow capture the spirit of the social and political upheaval of 1960s Los Angeles with a veracity that chilled me."
--Paula Woods, Los Angeles Times "[Phillips] has evoked this milieu in many sharply rendered novels over the past three decades. Ash Dark as Night shows him at the top of his game."
--Tom Nolan, The Wall Street Journal
"One of the high points of the year for mystery fans."
--Parade "Phillips' meticulous research opens a window into events of the mid-1960s, showing the politics, changing culture and attitudes of the day . . . A showcase for Phillips' strong storytelling skills and Harry's camera work."
--Oline Cogdil, South Florida Sun Sentinel "The most impressive aspects of this story are the accurate historical settings. We see and feel LA's poorer neighborhoods and inhabitants, how its people survive, interact, work and play. The novel's depiction of political and law enforcement leaders closely follows actual history."
--Historical Novels Review "Outstanding . . . Phillips folds real historical figures, including TV journalist Louis Lomax, and events into a complex narrative of shifting alliances that captures the urgency and volatility of the mid-'60s. The results rank with the best of Walter Mosley in the canon of Los Angeles noir."
--Publishers Weekly, Starred Review "Like Walter Mosley, his obvious model, Phillips is less interested in telling a story than evoking a world--and what a world!"
--Kirkus Reviews "Hardboiled, gritty, and fresh, Phillips's latest is for fans of action/detective stories."
--Library Journal Praise for Gary Phillips
"Phillips is a storyteller first . . . The wounds of 1963, and the foreshadowing of both better days and harsher ones, feel unnervingly fresh, and a reminder that progress, much as we wish otherwise, never adheres to a linear timeline."
--The New York Times Book Review "Phillips takes readers deep into another world and time: its jokes, home furnishings, baloney-meatloaf-and-hot-dog-heavy meals; its hateful slurs, 'invisible' racial boundaries and cautiously hopeful possibilities."
--The Washington Post "Propulsive . . . One-Shot Harry crackles with authenticity, and its resilient hero seems resourceful and tough enough to propel any number of sequels."
--The Wall Street Journal "For thirty years Phillips has been a must-read writer, and One-Shot Harry is probably his best ever--tense and suspenseful, of course, but also deep, resonant and intelligent. It's a story that needed to be told, and therefore a book that needs to be read."
--Lee Child "In the tradition of Dashiell Hammett . . . Makes us feel that the war he's waging is for our own salvation."
--Walter Mosley, author of the Easy Rawlins series "Gary Phillips is my kind of crime writer."
--Sara Paretsky, New York Times bestselling author "Gary Phillips writes tough and gritty parables about life and death on the mean streets . . . his is a voice that should be heard and celebrated."
--Michael Connelly, author of Void Moon and Angels Flight
