Customer Reviews

The Last King: A Maceo Redfield Novel (Strivers Row)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I read "The Dying Ground" several years ago and while I thought that book was fair, "The Last King" isn't much better. In fact, it's less of a novel than the first one and by no means is it a hip-hop mystery. Everything happens around Maceo; he's not a catalyst for anything; he's not involved in what's going on. In reality, he's a peripheral character and we're waiting for Holly to appear and move the story forward. For the life of me I can't understand why Holly isn't front and center. If the goal is to show crime, broken dreams, survival, noirish elements, etc. in Oakland, Maceo is, indeed, the wrong character to use as the mouthpiece. Holly, at least what we get of him, is the central character to express those images. Maceo is an observer to the action and not really part of the fabric of what's going on.

There is a way to blend social commentary and action within a story, but it's not in evidence here. Maceo often sounds like a sociologist/observer rather than someone who's lived in Oakland; nothing he says sounds as though he really lived there. His musings about his childhood don't ring true; I don't/didn't get a sense he and Holly were ever really close; and ditto for the Cotton character. And all that background noise on the inter-relationships: It seems Daddy Al is related to EVERYONE in Oakland or had some significant input into how they turned out. It all seems "made up" to fit the tone of the story. One of my pet peeves about the current novel: the element of time. Maceo is introduced as being gone for two years. If you do the math and follow the timeline, he did a LOT of stuff in those two years and it all seems improbable given his character. He's just not the type to have a bar fight in Texas.

As a mystery, it doesn't work. Once the love interest/femme fatale character was introduced, it wasn't too hard to figure out the rest. I thought there might be a "surprise" ending, but there wasn't. I can only assume the Ms. Tramble will eventually turn her attention to Holly or Felicia because it's unlikely Maceo would be an interesting subject in a third novel. He's pretty boring and I think she's hit a brick wall with this character.

Not to diss Ms. Tramble (and the editorial above trumps my review), but I laughed out loud when I read the following: "The kids left behind by the absence of resources flowed into the streets and turned Oakland into a devil's playground. Who knew from The Cosby Show that we were in distress?" There are other internal monologues Maceo bemoans and I found myself wondering if she was reaching for "great literature." I know she can probably do it, but this definitely is not the novel.

The Last King is Nichelle Tramble's follow-up to her debut novel, The Dying Ground, which unfortunately I have not read. However, the author provided enough background to establish the history and torment of the novel's hero, Maceo Redfield, with little redundancy. The Last King opens with Maceo returning from a two-year self-exile to help childhood friends and foster brothers Cotton, the professional basketball player and Holly, a local Oakland gangster. Both men are wanted for questioning in the murder of a high-priced call girl in a posh hotel room rented by Cotton. With Cotton being a star NBA player, a media scandal is brewing. Maceo's instinct is to protect his family at all costs and mend the broken relationships and open wounds suffered in the aftermath of The Dying Ground events.

We follow Maceo into Oakland's seedy underworld: the docks, dirty hole-in-the-wall diners, and crack houses. Tramble writes with familiarity of the city - vivid descriptions and imagery, local political challenges and social ills of the late 1980's and early 1990's resonate throughout the novel. The major drawback of the book is Maceo being in reactive mode during most of the novel. He is no super-sleuth and seems a bit too trusting of strangers (perhaps that's supposed to be part of his charm). He does not appear to have a clear strategy on how to resolve the murder except to find Holly - which largely involves collecting clues by visiting old haunts and sleazy contacts. He seems to accidentally discover who the real murderer is - which wasn't too difficult for the reader to figure out early on - I kept reading to figure how it was done. Nonetheless what was lacking in the mystery/suspense aspect, Tramble makes up for in creating colorful characters, insightful societal commentaries/observations , and a couple of unforeseen revelations in the end.

Reviewed by Phyllis
APOOO BookClub, The Nubian Circle Book Club

I, along with my previous reviewers, agree that Ms. Tramble has done a wonderful job with The Last King as a sequel to The Dying Ground. I came upon The Dying Groud by accident and discovered a treasure.

In The Last King we are reunited with Maceo Redfield who has grown as a man. His exterior is tougher but you still feel his vulnerabilities that lie beneath the surface. I really enjoyed revisiting old characters as well as being introduced to new ones. I feel like I know these people and will readily admit that I missed Daddy Al, Gra'mere, and the aunts being more involved in this sequel but I understand their absence. This novel to me was more about Maceo coming to grips with past actions that deeply affected his friends and family. I'm sure his family will play a more prominent role in future novels.

Ms. Tramble has not lost her "pitching arm" in continuing to describe the city of Oakland at the time period that this novel is placed. In reading the descriptions of the city and it's surroundings you feel like you're riding along in the truck with Maceo and Kiros.

If you haven't already had the pleasure of experiencing this author's writing and enjoy books that make you feel for the characters, please start with The Dying Ground. After you have taken that book trip continue on your journey with The Last King. You will not be disappointed.

Hats off to you Ms. Tramble. The Last King was worth the wait and I look forward to the next novel in this series. May you have continued success.

I loved Tramble's first "Maceo Redfield" book, The Dying Ground, and was glad to see this successor finally come out three years later. In that first book we were given a street-level view of the violent streets of Oakland circa 1989, as teenage Maceo Redfield tried to avenge the death of one of a childhood friend. Now it's two years later, and Maceo has returned from a self-imposed exile bouncing around the U.S. with only a dog for company. Two more old friends are deep in trouble with the law, and Maceo feels an obligation to try and help them.

Unfortunately, this second outing with Maceo isn't nearly as interesting as the first. Part of the problem is that one of these old friends, Cotton, is now a massively famous professional basketball star, and the depiction of his high-roller lifestyle isn't very interesting. The story revolves around a dead woman found in Cotton's hotel room one night, and the question of who she is, who killed her, and why. Prints on the scene point to Cotton and Maceo's childhood pal Holly, who is now a fairly large player in Oakland's narcotics distribution industry (and a key figure from the first book).

Another major problem is that while Maceo is all fired up on doing his duty to his old friends and helping them, it's not at all clear what he can actually do that's useful. He spends almost the first half of the book wandering around Oakland, looking for Holly (who is in hiding) and trying to pick up the word on the street. As he catches up on the neighborhood, from barbershop, to diner, to nightspot, to rec center, to hair salon he passes the time with all kinds of local characters. These interactions and people are the best part of the book, as they feel totally authentic and believable -- if not particularly useful in terms of helping his friends.

But once he does get together with Cotton and Holly, it's pretty anticlimactic, since Cotton more or less disappears from the book until the end, and there isn't a whole lot Maceo can really do for Holly. It's also kind of strange, because for all the precautions Maceo takes in some areas, he leaves himself wide open in others (most notably, getting involved with a sexy woman who was close to the dead woman). The plot gets awfully convoluted, and is deeply intertwined with events of the first book (you really need to read that one first), so much so that I started to lose interest about two-thirds of the way through.

The storytelling also isn't helped by Maceo spending a fair amount of time sermonizing on the ravages the drug trade has taken on Oakland. This generally comes across as the author using Maceo as a somewhat banal mouthpiece, rather than observations that would organically occur to Maceo. I'm all for using crime stories a a vehicle for social commentary (George Pelecanos is probably the best contemporary writer at this), and I seem to recall it working pretty well in the first book, but it's just really heavy-handed and somewhat empty here.

Ultimately, the book just never caught fire for me in the way the first did, and it's hard to imagine there's any life left in this series now that Maceo has "helped" all his childhood friends.

Another unsolved death and missing suspect. That can only mean it's a Maceo Redfield mystery. He's back after two long years of traveling here and there, nowhere really! He's bulked up some, and his face is scarred. Maceo and Kiros (his dog and newfound best friend) have returned to Oakland at the urging of his aunt Cissy.

In the Dying Ground, the murder of Smokey involving Maceo, Felicia, Felicia's brothers, Holly, Clarence, Emmet, and The Samoans has made its way back into the limelight. Dutch, Smokey's cousin wasn't happy when it stopped his cash flow. Dutch and his high rolling girls The Nightingales` turn Oakland out as Dutch put all of the players in their prospective places trying to see who the trigger person was.

There is no reception for Maceio's reappearance. In fact it appears that he's still enemy #1. They've blamed him for the shambles of the Redfield Family, Cissy's stroke, Holly's further depth into the underworld, and more importantly they all have him as running away with Felicia. A woman he loved who didn't love him in the same regard, who he hasn't seen in two years as well. As Maceo tries to make amends and stop running as a boy to stand as a man he willing takes his lumps. But not without placing blame elsewhere instead of on his shoulders.

Cotton the Basketball star and childhood friend has been arrested for murder after a dead woman was found in his hotel room. Jonathon "Holly" Ford is also being sought after. What detail is missing about this elaborate scheme?

The shady dealings into the drug world, violence, prostitution, blackmail, and professional sports combined together in this high-energy account of who done it!

While Maceo searches for the truth of what happened that night he's realized that he can't trust the people he knows. He finds Sonia "Sonny Boston" his latest damsel. Can Maceo now learn to trust people he doesn't know? Will this prove to be detrimental?

This is a well written clever novel with suspense, and great characters. Not to mention it picks up from the last book without it being a continuation per se....

We need more men in our communites like Daddy Al, willing and ready to raise boys without fathers. In fact this family would be an excellent example for WHAT A FAMILY IS/SHOULD BE/NEEDS TO BE!

I just finished the last king. beautifully done. it actually made me weepy-hard-boiled, cynical me. It went deeper- I got more great existential depth, back-story that pinned but did not bog down the action/events-just a super poetic, deep look into the hearts, souls, and characters in this landscape.

I take issue with the reviewer for the Washington Post's criticism- Tramble takes on all the social, political and cultural elements associated with Oakland (Evelyn waugh, Graham greene, Dickens, Balzac, Haley, Sartre, Marquez all did the same, mind you, it's the mark of a seriously good writer), and anchors her story in social criticism while keeping it all about the action--and she succeeds at this task-- so it's discouraging to see her being knocked for something that's most appropriate- a cultural, political and social context for her art.

At no point did I feel like the existential exposition slowed the action or took me out of the energy of the tale. On the contrary I saw Maceo as one of the archetypal "lone cowboy" figures, haunted, driven by his demons, forced by circumstances to return to his roots and face his demons-wherever they may have been. And that's an eminently human task, regardless of who we are, where we're from-we've all got to go back to the roots, or suffer the consequences.Tramble dares depict a dirty, beautiful and complex world, and invites us to wander it with her.

A great read. I hope we see more of Sonny Boston in books to come as well. She's a real pistol!

I was a happy late convert to the Maceo Redfield series back in the summer of 2003, when I happened upon the DYING GROUND and was delighted to find the sequel, THE LAST KING,on shelves this spring. Hats off to a woman who can write compelling, literate and realistic crime-lit, dismantling the facile stereotypes of urban cultures as she digs deep into the her world and characters. There's an excellent blend of mystery and drama and it's refreshing to see a writer who dares to allow things to be and appear as complex as they genuinely are-the darkness of our times is evident everywhere. Ms. Tramble create a compelling narrative thread that guides us through the minotaur's maze, dropping new wrinkles and perspectives on the world with every corner she turns. I strongly recommend this book as a great crime read for all!

Nichelle Tramble once again takes hold of the reader's attention and never lets it go until the tale is fully told. She captures the feel of a city, Oakland, California and turns it into the conductor allowing you to travel in the mind and heart of Maceo, his family, his friends and foes. Maceo's search for redemption and forgiveness is challenged and tested by the chaos that overwhelms the lives of those he cannot forget. This writer not only knows how to tell a great story but does it with style and flair. I loved the writing as much the story it told. I strongly recommend both of Ms. Tramble's books, The Dying Ground and The Last King.

This is just a great story, tightly plotted and heartbreaking. I cried twice while reading this in one night. The hardboiled classification can be a little off-putting but beneath the toughness of this genre beats a soft heart. The lead character, Maceo Redfield, is a man plagued by guilt and he returns to Oakland, California to make amends for past deeds. The author gets so deep inside Maceo's head that I felt like I was making the decisions along with him, and, frankly, I don't know how a woman pulled this off so well. A nod to the writers skill. I learned about The Last King after reading an article in a northern California newspaper. Now I can't wait to go back to The Dying Ground. I hope the next book in the series is just as engaging. I am an avid mystery fan and I will make sure to follow this writer. Don't miss out.

Tramble has delivered on the promises she made in THE DYING GROUND. This a beautifully written mystery that just might make you cry once or twice. Well done, can't wait for the third book.