Smoke Kings

Starred review from December 18, 2023
In Mayfield’s powerful debut, four Black vigilantes in New Jersey seek justice for the racially motivated killing of their leader’s younger cousin. Their plan is to kidnap the descendants of past perpetrators of hate crimes and force them to pay financial reparations for their ancestors’ acts. The scheme starts to go off the rails when Scott York, targeted for his grandfather’s supposed murder of a Black man and his own exploitation of eminent domain to seize Native American land, hires retired police officer Mason Farmer to track down the vigilantes. Things get worse when the group inadvertently kills one of their victims and the man’s brother, the leader of a white supremacist gang known as the Righteous Boys, seeks bloody vengeance. The novel climaxes with a sustained action sequence that brings all these tensions to a head and concludes with an unexpected act of gut-wrenching violence worthy of its hefty themes. Well-rounded, sympathetic characters drive the propulsive narrative, which makes room for thoughtful discussions of such topics as Black identity, racial justice, and reparations. Mayfield’s lucid prose, breakneck pacing, and confident handling of controversial subject matter make him a writer to watch. Agent: Jackson Keeler, InkWorks.