A Young L. A. Gang Banger Goes On the Road

This is a haunting, beautifully written book about a young Los Angeles gang banger named East. As the book opens, East is the head of a crew of sentries who are guarding the approach to a drug den. But when the police suddenly raid the place, something goes wrong, and the boys East has placed on the perimeter to sound the first alarm fail to do so. The house gets hit with only East's last-second panicked warning to those inside.

East's uncle, Fin, who runs this and other drug houses, is naturally unhappy. But instead of punishing East, Fin sends him on a new mission. With three other young men, including his younger brother, East is to drive cross-county to Wisconsin and kill a man who is prepared to testify against Fin.

For East, who has never been out of his neighborhood in L.A., it's like being asked to go to the dark side of the moon. But he accepts the task and rolls out of the city with his compatriots. What follows is a dark crime novel bolted to a coming-of age story/road trip. Despite the criminal record he has already built as a very young boy, East is a sympathetic character and Beverly tells his story with a great deal of empathy. As the boys cross the country a new world unfolds before East and the journey takes him to places physically and emotionally that he never could have imagined.

This is a book that appeal to large numbers of crime fiction readers, especially to those who are fans of Richard Price and Bill Beverly is clearly an author to be watching for.