Smoke Kings

There is a reason that criminal gangs fall apart. As an individual you can take responsibility for your own action, plan ever detail and keep your mouth shut when the job is done, but what about the others? They may be getting cold feet or have a loudmouth. The Smoke Kings are a group that started off with a just mission behind their crimes, but as time passes and fractures in their relationships open, they come closer to a resolution none of them wanted – prison or death. 

The world is full of unjust crimes and victims. Often the victims are never given a sense of resolution, the suspect is freed or not punished enough for their liking. When someone close to the Smoke Kings is murdered, rather than sit and stew, they decide to reset the balance. Their mission to find the relatives of historic criminals and force them to pay reparations. These relatives are as crooked as their ancestors were, but after nine successful crimes, the Smoke Kings are starting to fall apart, and it gets worse when they choose the wrong victim. 

Jahmal Mayfield has created in Smoke Kings an interesting moral conundrum wrapped in modern noir. The Smoke Kings are made up of the family and friends of a murdered boy. In their minds kidnapping and scaring bad people is justified. They even go as far as to have a legitimate front that fights for the rights of marginalised minorities. This is a book about race and what it it to live in modern America. By using various characters, Mayfield explores the ideas of race from different perspectives. It is a powerful part of the novel, but not its only element. 

Smoke Kings is also a crime thriller, a classic feeling story of a gang starting to deteriorate. Infighting builds as the original motives seem further away each time they commit a crime. It only feels like a matter of time until someone is killed, and this acts as a trigger point for the story. Set in three parts, each has a different feel. Part 1 is a slower, moral discussion. Part 2 is the start of the real problems between the gang. Part 3 is where the book becomes much more action orientated. 

The crime part of the book is well told. We follow the gang committing the crime, but also a PI who is on their case. We see things from both sides. The PI himself is a flawed character, unable to cope with the changing world around him. It is a book about broken people struggling to come to terms with what it is to survive in modern America. 

Towards the end we are introduced to a new character who acts as a further antagonist, one that both the gang and the PI are against. This character represents the hard edge of racism, the leader of a gang of Neo Nazis. In a book that discusses with nuance issues of race, this leader is too cartoonish at times, issuing classic quotes alongside torture. The book dips its foot into Tarantino territory, when I preferred the classic noir feel that the earlier part of the book was based on. For a modern reader looking for action and thrills, introducing Nazis does pick up the pace, but it cheapens the impact for characters Mayfield had spent a long-time giving nuance. 

Smoke Kings is a book worth reading for any lover of crime thrillers as it does provide action. It explores issues far deeper than your average thriller and raises questions on race. Mayfield explores this from different angles, folding it seamlessly into the narrative, therefore, the last section jars slightly, but does not undo all the good that built up before. A clever slice of modern noir.