Death List - by Donald Goines (Paperback)

About the Book

Kenyatta, a successful kingpin of 1970s Detroit, makes a deal with the police in order to reel in the shady drug dealers who are stealing his business and sullying his name.

Book Synopsis

The undisputed originator of urban lit, Donald Goines ups the ante with one of his most enduring characters, as he continues the gripping, gritty story of crime in the black ghetto that he began in Crime Partners. Now reissued for the first time in a decade with a fresh new look!

Kenyatta has it good. The gang lord's got the ladies, the clubs, the guns, and an army of deadly brothers at the ready when he says the word. The only problem is the shady dealers who are running the drugs in Detroit. It's time to get them out, even if means making a deal with the men in blue. Once the plan is in place, nobody's safe, everybody's a target, and the streets are about to flood with blood.

Review Quotes

Praise for Donald Goines

"A true master at depicting street life in its rawest, most authentic form, Mr. Goines mastered the art of storytelling from the darkest corner of America: the ghetto. His brilliance still shines through and touches the soul of modern black culture." --JaQuavis Coleman, New York Times bestselling author

"Donald Goines is the most iconic voice in urban fiction. His masterful pen is timeless." --Ashley Antoinette, New York Times bestselling author

"I learned to read on Donald Goines. His books are classics." --Carl Weber, New York Times bestselling author and founder of Urban Books

"A timeless writer, Donald Goines laid the foundation for all who came after. Fifty years later, his novels continue to inspire urban fiction from one generation to the next." --Wahida Clark, New York Times bestselling author

"Machiavelli was my tutor, Donald Goines my father figure." --Tupac Shakur

"The voice of the ghetto itself." --The Village Voice

"He lived by the code of the streets and his books vividly recreated the street jungle and its predators." --New Jersey Voice

"Donald Goines is one of Hip Hop's Greatest Inspirations." --The Source Magazine

"The godfather of black pulp fiction." --Salon.com

"Goines put you right there in the action." --AllHipHop.com

"Donald Goines, a brilliant writer of street literature, captures the pain of addiction perfectly." --Black Enterprise, The 18 Best Books of All Time

"Goines's influence on hip-hop, pulp-fiction, movies, and scores of authors deserves as much praise as a James Baldwin or Richard Wright, who also wrote about Black life in the ghetto." --Darryl Robertson, hip hop journalist

"Donald Goines was for the streets [in the 70s] what the rappers are today. . . . He was in the streets, of the streets and spoke for the streets." --Chaz Williams, CEO of Black Hand Entertainment

"Donald Goines has become, decades after his death, one of the most influential African-American authors in the African-American literary canon." --Thumpers Corner

About the Author

Donald Goines was born in Detroit, Michigan. He joined the U.S. Air Force instead of going into his family's dry cleaning business. Following his service, he entered into a life of drug addiction and crime. He received seven prison sentences, serving a total of over six years. While he was in prison, Goines wrote his first two novels, Dopefiend: The Story of a Black Junkie and Whoreson: The Story of a Ghetto Pimp. Goines was shot to death in 1974.