Bangers [Mass Market Paperback]

Gary Phillips (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2007

On The Streets Of L.A. Us against them. That's the law of the cop world. In L.A.'s toughest 'hoods, you gotta bang with the best of the roughnecks. And the best are the five members of TRASH, an elite team of street cops unafraid to go up against the city's worst gangbangers, even if it means bending the rules, planting a piece, or looking the other way for a fellow cop.

The Most Dangerous Person Can Be A Cop...

The crime-infested Venice Heights section is a place Detective Sergeant Rafael "Saint" Santian understands. It's where he grew up, and part of him never left. But the situation is getting out of control. One of the most lethal gangs is making moves, while a politically ambitious assistant D.A. is looking to snare Saint and his men. Meanwhile hidden hands are lighting a torch that will bring up the heat, turning cop against cop as the line gets blurred between gangsta and law enforcer in a city where everyone's riding on the edge...

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Rafael "Saint" Santi n and his elite team of cops take on gangstas and an ambitious female district attorney running for mayor in Phillips's gritty and violent tour of the underbelly of Los Angeles. The TRASH unit Tactical Resources Against Street Hoodlums really is a gang itself, as deadly as anyone else on the street. "When they bent the rules it was because the rules were hamstringing them from achieving the greater goal. Yeah, they copped some extras for themselves, but who didn't? It was drug money, whore money, laundered money." The main plot is standard B-movie material, merely a neat frame for a series of engaging set pieces, but the subplots allow Phillips to show that he knows his turf and its wars. Pulling a large cast from all layers of society, from bangers with the Crazy Nines to bikers wearing the Viking colors and hip-hop execs at Def Ritmo Records, he smoothly follows one character or another, whether Saint or the biker Red Dog or the Korean-American assistant D.A. shacking with Red Dog's mama. Saint even cruises down to Tijuana for some additional fun-and-gun action. As in his Las Vegas-based Martha Chainey mysteries (High Hand, etc.), Phillips doesn't worry much about loose ends, but keeps all the clips loaded. A trademark cliffhanger of an ending suggests that Saint and his crew may be series bound.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Publisher

"Gary Phillips writes with raw power...you're about to take a wild ride." --Jan Burke, Edgar Award-winning author on High Hand

"Phillips...serves up a fast-moving plot." --Publishers Weekly on High Hand

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Dafina (February 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0758203837
• ISBN-13: 978-0758203830
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 3.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,726,502 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Rebuttal, January 4, 2004

By 

Gary D. Phillips "gdphillips" (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bangers (Paperback)

Naturally being the writer of Bangers I'm biased. But I don't think DaRealReturn, whoever that is, gave the book a fair shake. I would urge any potential reader to go to my website, www.gdphillips.com, and read an excerpt of Bangers for yourself.

Thank you.

Gary Phillips

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Read!, May 18, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Bangers (Paperback)

If you like your cops dirty and your crime dirtier, this book is for you. One of Phillips darker books - more in the vein of the Jook than his others - Bangers is a real page turner. The characters leap of the page. You can tell Gary knows LA and the book is littered with real locations. I can't say enough about this book. I have read most everything Gary has done, and this is the book I give to people as an introduction to his work. Check it out. As Gary himself said below he has a chapter you can read at his web site http://gdphillips.com/bangers.htm

Don't bother with the other review on this page. That guy must have read a different book...seriously.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This is the stuff!, June 30, 2004

By 

P. Rhodes (St Louis, Mo.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bangers (Paperback)

Fantastic read. Yes, might be too dark for a beach or subway/commute, but wonderful for a rainy afternoon, in the lounge chair!

Who was it would put Gary Phillips' stuff under a Gary Hardwick book? Wow. Harwick, the guy who brought you cerberal stuff like "The Brothers" and "Deliver us from Eva" (without giving Willie Shakespeare a footnote?)? Were I an African American (my wife is, however, and she backs me up), I'd roll my eyes at that one!!!