Jook

by Gary Phillips

Zelmont Raines has slid a long way since his ability to jook, to outmaneuver his opponents on the field, made him a Super Bowl–winning wide receiver, earning him lucrative endorsement deals and more than his share of female attention. But Zee hasn’t always been good at saying no, so a series of missteps involving drugs, a paternity suit or two, legal entanglements, shaky investments, and recurring injuries have virtually sidelined his career.

That is until Los Angeles gets a new pro franchise, the Barons, and Zelmont has one last chance at the big time he dearly misses. Just as it seems he might be getting back in the flow, he’s enraptured by Wilma Wells, the leggy and brainy lawyer for the team—who has a ruthless game plan all her own. And it’s Zelmont who might get jooked.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, African American

217 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 1999

About the author

GARY PHILLIPS has been a community activist, labor organizer and delivered dog cages. He’s published various novels, comics, short stories and edited several anthologies including South Central Noir and the Anthony award-winning The Obama Inheritance: Fifteen Stories of Conspiracy Noir. Violent Spring, first published in 1994 was named in 2020 one of the essential crime novels of Los Angeles. He was also a writer/co-producer on FX’s Snowfall (streaming on Hulu), about crack and the CIA in 1980s South Central where he grew up. Recent novels include One-Shot Harry and Matthew Henson and the Ice Temple of Harlem. He lives with his family in the wilds of Los Angeles.

Reviews

[PM Press · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zelmont Raines has slid a long way since his ability to jook, to out maneuver his opponents on the field, made him a Super Bowl winning wide receiver, earning him lucrative endorsement deals and more than his share of female attention. But Zee hasn’t always been good at saying no, so a series of missteps involving drugs, a paternity suit or two, legal entanglements, shaky investments and recurring injuries have virtually sidelined his career.

That is until Los Angeles gets a new pro franchise, the Barons, and Zelmont has one last chance at the big time he dearly misses. Just as it seems he might be getting back in the flow, he’s enraptured by Wilma Wells, the leggy and brainy lawyer for the team--who has a ruthless game plan all her own. And it’s Zelmont who might get jooked.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quote:
"I had butterflies with razor wings doing loop-the-loops in my stomach. I was psyched up & couldn't quite figure out why. The danger of them gangsters had me sharp, but that wasn't it. Motherfuckahs who thought with their guns were cowardly punks anyway. You had to respect a piece, but not the fool packing it. Guns gave 'em a false sense of security. That could be handled."

"Inside the room the air wasn't moving. It was like all the quickie stranger sex had been soaked into the cinder block walls & was seeping out a little bit at a time, getting absorbed into the skins of the users, then recycled back into the room. And the women like the ones prowling outside were living off the energy like it was antimatter in Star Trek."

[Spencer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty solid urban noir that reminded me a lot of the film Against All Odds, perhaps because of the down-on-the-luck football protagonist teaming up with his once best friend who owns a nightclub, all of it taking place, for the most part, in L.A. There's a few plot glitches and some of the loose ends are wrapped up a little too briskly, but overall it's a quick and engaging and rough-around-the-edges hard-boiled read.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book doles out plenty of action, violence, sex and has a crazy, improbable plot. It’s a good read for fans of fast moving stories and larger than life characters, entertaining, but a little over the top for me.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

With everything going on in the world right now I have had trouble focusing on any kind of non-fiction. Sometimes you need a couple hundred pages of pulp. I'll probably forget 80% of this book within a week, but it passed the time!

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Gary Phillips, and this is pure Gary. The language and plot are pure South Central L.A., the action is intense, the storyline hustles you along and it's plenty down and dirty. I don't even like football, at all. And loved this.

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Feeling super cynical about the NFL, I decided to pick this tale up and was glad I did. The plot was implausible but
the dialogue was superb as was the action. I liked it enough that I might try another one by the author at some point.

[John Treanor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent. A little hokey in spots, but worth a read. A crack smoking, speed taking football player on the outs gets caught up in a bad situation...