In this, his fourth novel, Goines tests the tensile strength of a ghetto spawn who clawed his way to the top and fights like hell to stay there. He's known as "Earl the Black Pearl," and he's left the homeboys behind-way behind. He's cool, sharp as an ice crystal, and it seems that no one can touch him. Until someone even higher up puts the heat on and his friends begin dropping like flies-of lead poisoning. That's when Earl fights back...and all hell breaks loose!
Donald Goines was a career criminal and addict who took up writing during one of his seven prison sentences. From 1969 through 1974 he published 16 novels with Holloway House, which are now recognized as blood-soaked and almost unbearably authentic portraits of the roughest aspects of the black experience.
