The Dying Ground

Billy: dead. Felicia: missing.

None of the words made sense together, but the doom I'd expected announced itself. I felt iron in my mouth, like I'd gargled with pennies, a taste like blood, a bitter taste that always followed bad news.

The setting is Oakland, 1989; the crack epidemic is at its height and turf wars are brewing. Maceo Redfield, currently on hiatus from college, is walking a fine line between respectability and involvement in Oakland's drug underworld. As he waits in the neighborhood barbershop, one of his closest childhood friends, Holly Ford, brings him the news of the murder of Billy Crane, the third member of their childhood trio and a successful drug dealer. Felicia, Billy's girlfriend and Maceo's true love, is on the run and suspected of setting up the hit. As he searches for Felicia and the answer to the mystery of Billy's murder, Maceo is drawn deeper into a world in which dealers, players, and interlopers, obeying a code of honor all their own, engage in a deadly game to capture the heart of Oakland. When Maceo uncovers the truth about Billy, the story builds to a terrifying and painful climax.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Villard Books
Published: 01/09/2001
ISBN: 9780375756535
Pages: 336
Weight: 0.77lbs
Size: 8.00h x 5.20w x 0.89d
Award: Hurston/Wright LEGACY Award - Nominee

Review Citations: Library Journal Prepub Alert 09/01/2000 pg. 182
Library Journal 11/01/2000 pg. 102
Kirkus Reviews 12/01/2000 pg. 1643
Booklist 12/15/2000 pg. 801
New York Times 02/04/2001 pg. 27
Library Journal 09/01/2000