Vania V. Hudson

Whew. This book took what Vern Smith's "Scratching The Flint" did at kicked it up 100 notches. A bonafide prequel to his book and to Tia Ja'nae's "Ghosts On The Block Never Sleep", this book tells the story of Jean-Max Renaldo's early days through a journal he left behind after his untimely death in Smith's book. You don't need to read Smith's book to jump in with this one, and trust me it's all types of 1970s dirt, grime, crime, thriller, erotica all in one. The author did not disappoint us fans of "Ghosts On The Block Never Sleep" either, as this is the closest return of Hambone we will get.

It's a gritty realistic portrayal of the buddy cop duo where one's just getting in and frustrated and the other is on his way out and trying not to rock the boat before it happens with a nasty villain as their main united front and conflict. Not the typical cop book about Toronto po-po. I read this because I loved Tia Ja'nae "Flicking The Bic", which is the prequel to this & to her "Ghosts On The Block Never Sleep. In "Scratching The Flint" Smith's favorite detectives Alex Johnson a and Cecil Bolan (who appear in other works of the author) are on the hunt for Jean-Max Renaldo.