Darktown cover art

Darktown

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for £0.00
£8.99/mo thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Offer ends 31 July 2025 at 23:59 GMT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

Darktown

By: Thomas Mullen
Narrated by: Andre Holland
Try for £0.00

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July 2025 23:59 GMT. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Atlanta, 1948. In this city all crime is black and white. On one side of the tracks are the rich white neighbourhoods, on the other Darktown, the African American area guarded by the city's first black police force of only eight men.

These cops are kept near powerless by the authorities: they can't arrest white suspects; they can't drive squad cars; they must operate out of a dingy basement.

When a poor black woman is killed in Darktown having been last seen in a car with a rich white man, no one seems to care except for Boggs and Smith, two black cops from vastly different backgrounds. Pressured from all sides, they will risk their jobs, the trust of their community and even their own lives to investigate her death. Their efforts bring them up against a brutal old-school cop, Dunlow, who has long run Darktown as his own turf - but Dunlow's idealistic partner, Rakestraw, is a young progressive who may be willing to make allies across colour lines....

©2016 Thomas Mullen (P)2016 Little Brown Book Group Crime Thrillers Fiction Historical Mystery Thriller & Suspense Thriller Crime Suspense

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Ghosts: The Ghost Stories Of Noel Hynd, Book 1 cover art
The Cold, Cold Ground cover art
The Lincoln Lawyer: Booktrack Edition cover art
Nathan's Run cover art
Devil in a Blue Dress cover art
Dreamland Burning cover art
The Black Echo: Harry Bosch Series, Book 1 cover art
Where the Hurt Is cover art
Chiefs cover art
The Known World cover art
North and South cover art
In the Heat of the Night cover art
Kindred cover art
The Power of One cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
one of the best books I have listened to on audible. This is reminiscent of great James Ellroy novels.

awesome book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Excellent story, perfect narration. Difficult period to be confronted with so vividly, but worth it

Complex characters, excellent plot

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Well enjoyed. Harrowing at times. Vicious and very very scary if half of the bigotry occured as it was described. Look forward to Lightning Men.

First Class

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great listen! Unfortunately still resonates today! Narrator really brings the story to life. Would recommend.

Great listen! Unfortunately still resonates today!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Powerful police procedural revolving around two black cops and their investigation into the murder of a young negro girl in Atlanta, just after WW2. narrator brings this dark tale to life beautifully.

excellent crime debut set in the deep racist South

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I thought this was a good listen, quirky story and retro like the first TV series of True Detective.

The setting is segregated Atlanta post world war 2 and the friction between the first "coloured cops" and the established white officers. Told in alternating chapters giving viewpoints from two sets of cops. In the background is a murder to solve (young black girl who was fired from a rich white household) but I felt solving the crime was secondary to the portrait of the period and the social history.

At times it was tricky to remember which pair of cops was the focus as the voices were the same but the narrator had a great voice, he did a good job and really added to my enjoyment of the book.

What was interesting were the expectations of the local population and how they interacted with the new negro officers. It gave a really good insight into the period. Not racy or fast paced, this is a slow, considered commentary on life.

I was disappointed to find this is one of a series. I tend to avoid series as I feel they quickly become formulaic so I won't rush to get it.

Great social history

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Hopefully the truth in this is much appreciated. A truly excellent piece of fiction. Thanks.

Excellent

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great characters and lots of twists. Hope we hear more of Boggs and Smith and their police force.

Darktown

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Beautifully read, brilliantly written. Fascinating history with a great plot effortlessly woven into the setting.
Superb.

Outstanding

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A wonderful provocative moving story, hard to read sometimes but an essential look at a part of history we must never forget. A well paced novel that's highly recommended

Masterpiece

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews