Review: Our Man in the Dark

Our Man in the Dark by Rashad Harrison
Genre: historical noir
Pages: 302 ( Hardback)
Source: TLC BookTours
Description:

Feeling underappreciated and overlooked, John Estem, a bookkeeper for Dr. King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), steals ten thousand dollars from the organization. Originally planning to use the money to seed a new civil rights initiative in Chicago, he squanders the stolen funds.
To the bookkeeper’s dismay, the FBI has been keeping close tabs on Dr. King and his fellow activists—including Estem—for years. FBI agents tell Estem that it is his duty, as an American and as a civil rights supporter, to protect the SCLC from communist infiltration. The FBI offers Estem a stipend, but in case he has any thoughts about refusing the assignment, they also warn him that they know about the stolen money.
Playing informant empowers Estem, but he soon learns that his job is not simply to relay information on the organization. Once the FBI discovers evidence of King’s sexual infidelities, they set out to confirm the facts to undermine King’s credibility as a moral leader and bring down the movement. This timely novel comes in light of recent revelations that government informants had infiltrated numerous black movement organizations. With historical facts at the core of Our Man in the Dark, Harrison uses real life as a great inspiration for his drama-filled art.

My Rating: My Review: John Estem has led a life where he has been constantly ridiculed, teased, and disrespected.  As a bookkeeper for the SCLC, he hopes to gain respect and participate the movement.  Even here he is under-appreciated and ignored.  Hoping to gain some self-respect and win the affections of his long-time friend, Candy, John steals money from the SCLC which starts a series of events where John can't be sure how is friend or foe.  John finds himself working as an informant for the FBI and taking orders from a gangsta.  Soon he's in over his head and unable to find the respect he so needed.
After accepting this book for review, I became very intrigued with the noir style.  After doing a bit of research I discovered that noir fiction is a type of crime story with a cynical twist where almost all the characters in the story are troubled and there is no hero figure. Morality and inhibitions are not strong points and a doom-like theme dominates.  This story definitely fits the bill.  I liked how the entire plot was unpredictable and their were plenty of twists and turns.  After a while, I stopped trying to guess what would happen next.  I had to to sit back and watch the drama unfold.  None of the characters are especially loveable, or even likeable, which is consistent with the style.  I found that I started to view John the same way many of the other characters did.  I pitied him and found his actions to be quite naive and deplorable.  While there was a lot of action especially toward the end of the book, I felt like I wanted more action in the earlier parts of the story rather than hear the same inner thoughts from John.  His self-pity and thoughts about gaining respect were quite repetitive.  Additionally, I thought the conversations between Dr. King and John were a bit stilted and out of place.  They sounded too formal and a bit unrealistic.
Overall, if you are interested in historical noir, I think you'll enjoy this dark read that brings many twists and surprises.