Mystery/Thriller Reading Friends discussion

Spoilers welcome discussion topic for chapters 1-6 of Deacon King Kong by James McBride.
If the first to post please briefly summarize to guide the discussion.

I am listening to the audio but was able to check out the digital edition so I could do the summaries.

Chapter 1 - Jesus’s Cheese

Set in a Brooklyn housing project in 1969, the book opens with Deacon Cuffy Lambkin (better known as Sportcoat or Deacon King Kong) shooting a 19 year old drug dealer. Residents of the project speculate why the shooting occurred but even the Deacon does not know. All the Deacon can remember is that he was dreaming of his wife Hetty, who disappeared during the great snow of ‘67 and whose body was found in the harbor by Tommy Elafante’s (also known as the Elephant and someone you don’t mess with) men. But everyone agrees that the Deacon is a dead man walking.

Chapter 2 - A Dead Man

Sportcoat’s death has been predicted for years by everyone since he drinks excessively and has numerous health maladies. Born in South Carolina, Sportcoat followed his wife to Brooklyn in 1949, worked as a handyman and coached the local baseball team. The young drug dealer, Deems. had once been his star player.

Chapter 3 - Jet

While there are sixteen witnesses to the shooting only an undercover policeman, disguised as a janitor, tries to stop it. Known as Jet, he is a very young cop who is in a bit over his head. Jet yells out a warning before the shooting and Deems, the drug dealer, turns and is shot in the ear and not the face. He falls and begins choking on his sandwich so Sportcoat gives him the Heimlich though the witnesses think the Deacon is up to something else. When the police come, Jet tells his mentor and fellow officer Potts to arrest him so as not to blow his cover.

Chapter 4 - Running Off

After the shooting, Sportcoat decamps to the basement of Building 9. He has a bad feeling but is not sure why. Mainly he frets with his dead wife over The Christmas Club money for the church that she was in charge of. She never told him where she hid it and he has been worrying about finding it since her death. He finds a bottle of homemade hooch called King Kong and that settles him while he tries to remember what day it is so he can go to that day’s job. He heads to Itkin’s Liquors to unload crates. His best friend, Hot Sausage comes into the store and tries to alert him to the danger he is in. Sportcoat remains oblivious.

Chapter 5 - The Governor

Tommy Elefante hears about the shooting but does not really care. He has nothing to do with the dope business. Two weeks before the shooting an old Irishman, who said he knew the Elephant’s father in prison, came to see him and in a round about way let him know that the Elephant’s father had hidden something for the Irishman. Tommy has no idea what it might be or where it is.

Chapter 6 - Bunch

Bunch Moon, Deems’ boss, is not pleased that the drug dealer was shot. He is afraid that his crew may lose the project business and sends his right hand man, Earl, to rough Sportcoat up a bit to send a message. Earl is not enthusiastic about the mission.

Sandi: thank you for the summaries! I listened to the audio a few months ago and have been looking forward to the discussion. I didn't make notes at the time, and appreciate it can be harder to do so with an audio - the narration was a treat though!

Sportcoat / Deacon King Kong is quite a character and the other characters are quite colorful too. I loved hearing the speech patterns and fully experiencing the flavor of the neighborhood, and going back in time to the late 1960's era. I recall feeling like I was right on the street with them, entering the stores and basements.

Sandi: your summaries help so much, i wouldn't want to comment too far ahead. It looks safe to mention the two hidden caches that are sought by, Sportcoat (his wife Hetty's hidden Christmas Club money), and the mystery cache hidden by Tommy Elephante's father.
How many things have been hidden by people with no idea their hiding places will not be easily discovered after their death?

Ann wrote: "Sportcoat / Deacon King Kong is quite a character and the other characters are quite colorful too. I loved hearing the speech patterns and fully experimenting the flavor of the neighborhood, and go..."

This has been my favorite part so far. The immersion into the neighborhood and all the great characters. Like you stated the narration is great.

The plot is also fairly interesting. It does seem like the two missing items will come into play.

I read the print version, but the feeling of reality on the street was very strong.

Sandi, adding my thanks for taking on the summaries. I've been listening to the CD but was finding it hard to pull the many threads together, until I read your summaries. I'm now completely caught up and wondering where the story is going. I wonder why Sportcoat shot Deems. I know he is disappointed with the young man he thought was going places in the world of baseball, and maybe more than a little disappointed at the trade he took up in its place, but still.

Sportcoat is a very colorful character to say the least. I don’t know why I thought the story was going to be about what happen to Hetty. I was half believing Sportcoat shot Dean because he thought Dean killed his wife. Obviously, that would have been too simple. I am enjoying how Cause Houses is a character as well as its inhabitants. Elefante and I are both scratching our heads trying to figure out what the Irishmen is talking about. The imagery is fantastic and the comedy keeps me turning pages.

Well put Janice! The Cause Houses setting is very vividly described and draws us right in. The characters are in technicolor lol
Janice wrote: "Sportcoat is a very colorful character to say the least. ..
I am enjoying how Cause Houses is a character as well as its inhabitants. Elefante and I are both scratching our heads trying to figure out what the Irishmen is talking about. The imagery is fantastic and the comedy keeps me turning pages.."