What do you think?
Rate this book
Sam Dean #3
Point of Darkness
Mike Phillips's two previous mysteries, Blood Rights and The Late Candidate, have been celebrated by reviewers across America, for the quality of Phillips's writing and the complex, believable character of Sam Dean, the Jamaican-born, London-bred, street-smart, sexy, self-effacing, tough, and likeable black journalist. Point of Darkness brings Sammy to America - and into the streets of a New York darker, more complex, and more dangerous than most people know. Coming to the city to deliver a message from a dying friend to his daughter, Sammy finds himself once again entranced by the mixed Afro-Caribbean community of Jamaica, Queens, where many of his West Indies family and friends have relocated. It is a community of laughter and friendship, but also of underground scheming, bucking the system, and danger. What Sammy was planning as a quick trip turns into an intricate and terrifying chase as, first, his friend's daughter disappears - and, then, he gets woven into an expanding web of murder, sex, and sourly corrupt New York City politics, winding into a terrifying cross-country chase.
310 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 1995
13 people want to read
About the author
Mike Phillips
13 books8 followersMike Phillips was born in Georgetown, Guyana. He came to Britain as a child and grew up in London. He was educated at the University of London and the University of Essex, and gained a Postgraduate Certificate of Education at Goldsmiths College, London.
He worked for the BBC as a journalist and broadcaster between 1972 and 1983 on television programmes including The Late Show and Omnibus, before becoming a lecturer in media studies at the University of Westminster. He has written full-time since 1992. He is best known for his crime fiction, including four novels featuring black journalist Sam Dean: Blood Rights (1989), which was adapted for BBC television, The Late Candidate (1990), winner of the Crime Writers' Association Macallan Silver Dagger for Fiction, Point of Darkness (1994) and An Image to Die For (1995). The Dancing Face (1997) is a thriller centred on a priceless Benin mask. His most recent novel, A Shadow of Myself (2000), is a thriller about a black documentary filmmaker working in Prague and a man who claims to be his brother. He is currently working on a sequel.
Mike Phillips co-wrote Windrush: The Irresistible Rise of Multi-Racial Britain (1998) to accompany a BBC television series telling the story of the Caribbean migrant workers who settled in post-war Britain. His book, London Crossings: A Biography of Black Britain (2001), is a series of interlinked essays and stories, a portrait of the city seen from locations as diverse as New York and Nairobi, London and Lodz, Washington and Warsaw.
His latest book is Kind of Union (2005).
He worked for the BBC as a journalist and broadcaster between 1972 and 1983 on television programmes including The Late Show and Omnibus, before becoming a lecturer in media studies at the University of Westminster. He has written full-time since 1992. He is best known for his crime fiction, including four novels featuring black journalist Sam Dean: Blood Rights (1989), which was adapted for BBC television, The Late Candidate (1990), winner of the Crime Writers' Association Macallan Silver Dagger for Fiction, Point of Darkness (1994) and An Image to Die For (1995). The Dancing Face (1997) is a thriller centred on a priceless Benin mask. His most recent novel, A Shadow of Myself (2000), is a thriller about a black documentary filmmaker working in Prague and a man who claims to be his brother. He is currently working on a sequel.
Mike Phillips co-wrote Windrush: The Irresistible Rise of Multi-Racial Britain (1998) to accompany a BBC television series telling the story of the Caribbean migrant workers who settled in post-war Britain. His book, London Crossings: A Biography of Black Britain (2001), is a series of interlinked essays and stories, a portrait of the city seen from locations as diverse as New York and Nairobi, London and Lodz, Washington and Warsaw.
His latest book is Kind of Union (2005).
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
November 9, 2013
This is another in the series about Sam Dean, a native of the Caribbean who now lives in London. He has been asked by the wife of a childhood friend, now dying, to find their daughter in New York. She hasn't responded to letters or phone calls about her father's condition.
This relatively simple setup leads Sam into fraud, corruption, noisy Caribbean neighborhoods in the heart of New York, and some near-death experiences. It also leads him to Scottsdale, Arizona, which led to the unintentional humor in the description of Scottsdale as a sleepy, slow town. Uh, yeah. Times change.
The main thrust of the plot, however, involves Mary--the daughter--being caught up in the American Dream of improving her lot. Unfortunately, this involves pornography, the Mob, African graft, and Sam's ability to have sex in the most bizarre situations imaginable.
The story was loose, the plot a little limp, but the characterizations were as fun to read as usual. Sam's on-again-off-again photographer friend Sophia is a major part of this story. That's a good thing; she is an unlikely foil for Sam, but a character carefully drawn and exciting to read about. But, overall, Sam needs to go back to London and solve crimes there; he does better on his own turf.
This relatively simple setup leads Sam into fraud, corruption, noisy Caribbean neighborhoods in the heart of New York, and some near-death experiences. It also leads him to Scottsdale, Arizona, which led to the unintentional humor in the description of Scottsdale as a sleepy, slow town. Uh, yeah. Times change.
The main thrust of the plot, however, involves Mary--the daughter--being caught up in the American Dream of improving her lot. Unfortunately, this involves pornography, the Mob, African graft, and Sam's ability to have sex in the most bizarre situations imaginable.
The story was loose, the plot a little limp, but the characterizations were as fun to read as usual. Sam's on-again-off-again photographer friend Sophia is a major part of this story. That's a good thing; she is an unlikely foil for Sam, but a character carefully drawn and exciting to read about. But, overall, Sam needs to go back to London and solve crimes there; he does better on his own turf.
Displaying 1 of 1 review