Crime Partners [Mass Market Paperback]

Donald Goines (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1988

Goines' powerful first novel lays bare the bloody, brutal world of crime in the black ghetto, where, as Goines put it, "kindness was the sweetest con of all." Here is the gusty and often shocking world of Billy and Jackie, prison buddies on the streets and hot n the trigger.

--This text refers to an alternate Mass Market Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Holloway House Publishing Company (June 1988)
• ISBN-10: 0870670298
• ISBN-13: 978-0870670299
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,153,283 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars brutal, October 13, 2000

By 

Orrin C. Judd "brothersjudddotcom" (Hanover, NH USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Crime Partners (Paperback)

Donald Goines' books are brutal depictions of drug abusers, racist & corrupt cops, lethal gangsters & newly politicized blacks trying to fight these scourges. Goines, himself, lived a life like a character in one of his 17 books. He began writing in prison after someone turned him on to the works of Iceberg Slim & was hailed as one of the successors to Chester Himes. After his release, he rattled off as many as 8 novels a year. Then he was gunned down at his typewriter while working on his final book, Kenyatta's Last Hit.

This is the first in the Kenyatta series, and it picks up where Sam Greenlee's The Spook Who Sat by the Door left off. Billy Good and Jackie Walker are two small-time hoods on the streets of Detroit, but they hit the big-time when they meet up with Kenyatta, a black nationalist ghetto lord. Kenyatta and his gang have started taking back the streets by killing drug pushers & white cops. As he tells Billy and Jackie: "Kill the honkie. That's our rally cry. Death to Whitey." Then things get wild...

GRADE: C+

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good So Far, July 19, 2004

By 

ryan "King" (Omaha, NE USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Crime Partners (Mass Market Paperback)

I was introduced to Donald Goines when I heard about the movie version of "Never Die Alone". I'm a fan of DMX so I saw it and was amazed by the story and the movie. So when I found out that the movie was based on a book, and that there was lots more, I decided to give them a try.

Since I'd already seen the movie, I didn't wanna get the "Never Die Alone" book first(I will eventually). So I came across "Crime Partners", the first installment of the Kenyatta series. This book introduces us to Jackie and Billy, two stickup partners who are tired of not being recognized for their crimes. So they team up with Kenyatta, a sort of general to an army he's built up to stop crime and corruption by using it. On the other side of the law two detectives, Benson and Ryan, are angered after four fellow police officers are murdered and they're out to find out who did it(it was Jackie, Billy, and Kenyatta's gang). As Jackie and Billy's hits get bigger, so do their hearts as they fall in love with two women in Kenyatta's organization.

I liked this book. This, like I said, is my first Goines book, and it surprised me. It was so real, from the sex, to the drugs, to the cussing, and finally to the brutally true violence. I've heard people say that Benson and Ryan are corrupt cops and I haven't found them to be in this book. True, the book did end quick(along with Jackie and Billy's story), but this book had a first installment feel to it. It's like you almost expect the next book to be Kenyatta's revenge against those who ended his friends' lives. He's an odd character in this book. Sometimes you don't like him at all, and then sometimes you laugh at his charm(especially the part where he walks in on Billy and his newfound honey sleepin together). I hope that Kenyatta is explored more in the other books, because he hasn't effected me like King David did, where you were at a loss of feeling sorry, sickened, or charmed.

Anyways this is a good book, and I suggest everybody read it and read Goines' other books, like I will.

Was this review helpful to you?

2.0 out of 5 stars Crime Partners, March 4, 2000

By 

Michael (New Carrollton, Maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Crime Partners (Paperback)

Just like all the other Donald Goines books I've read, the first chapter drew me in like a bee to a flower. But, unlike the other books, from chapter two on almost made me lose my desire to finish the book. To me, some of chapters lost connection from one chapter to the next. And, not to mention the detectives, they truly did not deserve the mention that they received. Anyone could have played those characters -- even without names. However, one bad apple does not spoil the whole bag and I will continue to read all the books written by Donald Goines.