Evoking the socially resonant and morally complex crime novels of Dennis Lehane and Walter Mosley, Darktown explores the timely issues of race, law enforcement, and the uneven scales of justice in an intricately plotted crime saga that feels ripped from today’s headlines.

Responding to orders from on high, the Atlanta Police Department is forced to hire its first black officers, including war veterans Lucius Boggs and Tommy Smith, who are met with deep hostility by their white peers. They aren’t allowed to arrest white suspects, drive squad cars, or set foot in the police headquarters.

When a black woman who was last seen in a car driven by a white man turns up dead, Boggs and Smith suspect white cops are behind it. Among shady moonshiners, duplicitous madams, crooked lawmen, and the constant restrictions of Jim Crow, Boggs and Smith will risk their new jobs, and their lives, while navigating a dangerous world—a world on the cusp of great change.