Black! (PB) (1997)

Black! brings together three short novels by Clarence Cooper, Jr., a rediscovered genius of African-American writing. The Dark Messenger is a short, sizzling novel in which a reporter for a black newspaper discovers that truth and justice are no match for the next handout from the corrupt powers that be. Yet Prices Follow and Yet We Many are both sardonic crime novellas set in the worlds of the numbers racket and Black Muslims, respectively. All of them demonstrate the hard-edged, ultra-hip style of realism that was Clarence Cooper's trademark.