Streets on Fire

“Witty, alert, energetic, talented way above the ordinary.” —New York Times Book Review 

“Shannon''s spare, noir style and articulate dialog strike just the right balance between thriller and social consciousness.” —Library Journal 

It’s 2002 and Jack Liffey’s just doing a favor for a friend—he thinks. A fellow detective has asked Jack for help with finding Amilcar Davis and his girlfriend Sherry, both college kids. Amilcar is the son of a prominent black civil rights leader with deep roots in the African American community of South LA. The case has gone cold, but the situation is heating up as the community reckons with the choke-hold death of Abdullah-Ibrahim—a black Muslim man who also happens to be the Dodgers’ new ace pitcher—at the hands of LAPD.

Meanwhile, Jack delves into the Davis case, starting with a run-in the missing young couple had with a racist motorcycle gang a few weeks before their disappearance. Running headlong into an urban battlefield of white supremacists and black separatists, Jack must negotiate lines drawn with blood and hate. While LA teeters on the brink of another riot, Jack loses Maeve, his beloved daughter, and (as Kirkus Reviews puts it), “finds her, loses his lover, perhaps permanently, and gets beaten up, chewed on by dogs, and shot, almost fatally.” All in a day’s work for Jack Liffey.

John Shannon’s Liffey series takes readers deep into the many ethnic communities, tribal enclaves, and religious cultures of Southern California, which sometimes co-exist, sometimes clash, but always surprise. Fans of John Lescoart will fall deep into the fast-paced, unpredictable, and dangerous world John Shannon creates.