** spoiler alert ** 
 3.5 stars if I could give half stars. A gritty but necessary read about 1940's Atlanta and the experiences of the first eight black police officers on the APD force and the nearly futile attempt to solve the crime of murder of a young, black woman. 
 This book reminds me a lot of COPTOWN by Karin Slaughter, about the first women on the Atlanta Police force. Both books were captivating reads and, I feel, important to the history of our city. 
 The writing was engaging and impactful, but while full of details, seemed to lag. This happened and then that happened and then some more things happened and then some things happened and WHEN DOES THIS BOOK END? 
 I can't help but wonder if this book would read differently had it been written by a black author. I'm not one to have much of an issue with black centered books being written by white authors and maybe no one else wanted to write it (and I hear it has been optioned for a TV series) but there were some terms and sentences that made me wince because maybe the author struggled within himself if he was going to go there. 
 It also reminds me that it wasn't that long ago that blacks weren't considered "people". That no one cared about the death of a young black girl because....she was a young black girl. That a woman couldn't even report a rape because black women had no virtue to violate. And that a black police officer was just a n*gger in uniform, with no more rights or freedoms than those outside of the police force. And when I look at the current climate, I see echoes and remnants of that old way of thinking... the way we have to fight to get coverage for the disappearance of a little black girl, the way those in authority demand respect from minority citizens... just because. How it's imperative to cowtow to the authority of a police officer, lest you lose your life. 
 We have come a long away, but our past is not far enough behind us that it has made enough of a difference.