Customer Reviews

Harlem Confidential

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After being shot, Cootie Chambers decides it is time to get out of the game. While recuperating in the hospital ghosts from his past haunt him; insisting on reminding him that he has never been a real father to his girls. His daughters neither call nor come visit him; to make matters worse, he learns one of his daughters has entered the dark world of wild sex and prostitution. Once released from the hospital, Cootie becomes determined to find his daughter and pry her out of the clutches of her pimp, Mitch, one of the deadliest gangsters in New York. This becomes difficult as he dodges the police officers that follow his every move.

Harlem Confidential by Cole Riley was an interesting read with an action-packed plot. Although the plot was strong, I felt that the interaction between the characters weakened the book somewhat. For instance, one minute Cootie is sitting in a restaurant having a nice conversation with his daughter, Alicia, who says she was always proud she had a father around. The next she is spewing hateful words in his direction and running out of the restaurant. In the end, Cootie's other daughter, Audrey, whom the reader is lead to believe hates his guts, does something totally contrary to her character without any explanation as to how she arrived at that point.

Despite what I felt to be a lack of development between the character's relationships at times, Cole Riley is an awesome writer. His work is gritty with raw sexuality and a true taste of the streets. I look forward to reading other works from this author in the future.

T. RHYTHM KNIGHT

APOOO BookClub

Harry "Cootie" Chambers of HARLEM CONFIDENTIAL, is a Harlem con man in the hospital recovering from the bullet wounds he suffered after his friend, Red, shot him. Detective Philbrick would love to know exactly what went down so he can capture Red but Cootie isn't talking. Cootie feels sleeping with Red's wife was wrong and that he had made a big mistake by putting his lust for a woman before taking care of business. He also knows that he constantly put his business before his family and caused them more grief. He wasn't aware how much until he finds out an unpleasant truth about his youngest daughter, Audrey; she is a prostitute for one of Harlem's most notorious bad guys. He doesn't know how he is going to accomplish it, but he has to get his daughter away from the thug, Mitch. He also feels he must atone for being the poor father that he is, always putting money before his family. Cootie is aware that merely taking Audrey from Mitch will not solve her problems - her feeling that her father doesn't love her. Only he can take care of that.

Harlem Confidential, written by Cole Riley, is an expose of the rough horror of street life in Harlem. It was definitely a case of a bad guy attempting to change his life. Frequently, Riley went into too much detail about characters that only played a small part in the primary action of the book, which tended to distract from the main theme. It was, however, a quick and easy read.

Reviewed by Alice Holman

of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

This book was so dumb. The author has been compared to Donald Goines and Iceberg Slim....That's B.S. This book was a waste of my time and money. It was about as bad as The Last Kingpin by Renlentless Aaron.