Customer Reviews

Eldorado Red (Holloway House Originals)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Goines tells the story a numbers runnre who gets robbed by his own son. Not knowing this of course, he sends two of his men to find the guys who robbed his numbers house. Excellent, excellent, excellent

This story keeps the theme of Goines' work as usual. The main character (Eldorado Red) runs a few numbers houses, but his son Buddy and some of his friends rob them. After that, its clearly on. He doesn't fail to paint a picture the entire time, two scenes stuck out in particular for me. One of a mass of roaches which made my stomach crawl, and one of a fight toward the end with a hitman and a young dude where the latter gets his arm broken. The ending is pretty good too, so from top to bottom, its another solid piece from Donald Goines.

Eldorado Red kept me on the edge of my reading chair. Donald Goins was truly the master writer of the black experience and he died as he lived.

Royal Bryant

Donald Goines is one of the greatest black ghetto crime writers of all time. That's mainly due to the lack thereof. Usually, I can look at one of his books like a movie. Not this one. Don't get me wrong. I love Donald Goines. But this time, it just looked like he was in a hurry to finish the book. This would have made a terrible movie. The book finished on a totally different note then where it had started and I'm refering to the tone of the story and (especially) the initial plot. Do not read on if you wanna be surprised because I am about to spoil the ending. Finding Buddy's body in the trunk would have been more effective had there been a lead up to it. The book ends with the characters of "Tank" and the leader of Buddy's crew (I think it was "Steve"?) as it's Heroes (or Antiheroes). How the HELL did that happen. Also, all of the female characters were underused and totally worthless (save for Tina and the last chick Eldorado was with) to the story. This book was very sloppy and all over the place. While I understand that Brother Goines was not a conventional writer, and happy endings are not commonplace in Goines's literature, I wish he would have brought this story full circle (or at least 3/4), because I feel like I missed out on something. Strictly for HardCore "Goines" fans. May the brother R.I.P.

This is the second book I've ever read by Goines and I'm seeing a pattern--he introduces characters and then loses interest in them halfway through to the point of nonexistence (ex. Auntie Dee and Shirley). Ironically, I don't mind. The imagery on the roach house was phenomenal-I was grossed out enough to start looking around my own apartment.
All of the characters were well-developed, the plot ran smoothly and the action was quick but realistic. I wasn't so impressed by "Never Die Alone", but now I see why my ex-boyfriend reads all of Goines' books. I'm already pulling out the next one.

This book was very,very good to me! This is my first time reading a Donald Goines novel( that's why the review is titled first trial), and I was pleased with the results! This book kept me wondering what was going to happen next. The fistfights, were interesting and I kept reading because I kept wanting to see what was going to happen. The characters were pretty realistic and the plot was great. A son robs his own father's number's house with friends and things the story gets better after that. The ending was alright, not to bad. I also appreciated the armed robbery parts. Those were suspenseful! The book is worth buying and I'm looking for more of his works! It was close to 5 stars!

This book was very,very good to me! This is my first time reading a Donald Goines novel( that's why the review is titled first trial), and I was pleased with the results! This book kept me wondering what was going to happen next. The fistfights, were interesting and I kept reading because I kept wanting to see what was going to happen. The characters were pretty realistic and the plot was great. A son robs his own father's number's house with friends and things the story gets better after that. The ending was alright, not to bad. I also appreciated the armed robbery parts. Those were suspenseful! The book is worth buying and I'm looking for more of his works! It was close to 5 stars!

This book was alright. It told the story of the hate a boy had toward his father. I thought the book was something like Daddy Cool. Once again this is a book that goes into detail without holding anything back. The truth is revealed.

Pretty good book. The 1st one I read was dopefiend and I thought that book was "da bomb"..The story was depicted through actual experience. As for El Dorado Red I thought this book was great, made me almost wish there was a movie to go along with it, great suspense, realness and action. The only thing was that it could of been a little longer, but hey! still a great book...check them out

this novel lacked few things, and it portrayed Donald Goines as the true genius that he was. of all of the goines novels that i have read, this is one of the best.