Nichelle D. Tramble is the author of the critically acclaimed The Dying Ground, a launch title for Random House’s Strivers Row imprint. Her work has appeared in Modern Short Story, Santa Clara Review, Styles Magazine, Dysonna, the Oakland Post, Fade In Magazine and on the entertainment website chickclick.com.

Nichelle is a member of the Authors Guild, Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, PEN, Associated Writing Program and the Black Writers Alliance. She lives in southern California with her dog, Kobe.
 

Last King: A Maceo Redfield Novel
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ISBN: 0375758828
Format: Paperback, 336pp
Pub. Date: March 2004
Publisher: Ballantine Books, Inc

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About This Book
“After two years of drifting I finally knew there was only one place that could offer me a shot at peace, and that was my hometown. The city was my crossroads, the crooked man with the slanted grin, my temptation, and I wanted to beat it. I wanted to win. . . .”

Two years after leaving Oakland, Maceo Redfield returns to the city, where NBA All-Star Cornelius “Cotton” Knox has become tangled up in the murder of a local call girl. What could easily become a story for the tabloids turns personal when Maceo realizes that his estranged friend Holly Ford has also been linked to the crime.

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About the Book
Billy: dead. Felicia: missing.

None of the words made sense together, but the doom I'd expected announced itself. I felt iron in my mouth, like I'd gargled with pennies, a taste like blood, a bitter taste that always followed bad news.

The setting is Oakland, 1989; the crack epidemic is at its height and turf wars are brewing. Maceo Redfield, currently on hiatus from college, is walking a fine line between respectability and involvement in Oakland's drug underworld. As he waits in the neighborhood barbershop, one of his closest childhood friends, Holly Ford, brings him the news of the murder of Billy Crane, the third member of their childhood trio and a successful drug dealer. Felicia, Billy's girlfriend and Maceo's true love, is on the run and suspected of setting up the hit. As he searches for Felicia and the answer to the mystery of Billy's murder, Maceo is drawn deeper into a world in which dealers, players, and interlopers, obeying a code of honor all their own, engage in a deadly game to capture the heart of Oakland. When Maceo uncovers the truth about Billy, the story builds to a terrifying and painful climax.
 

Related Links

Nichelle D. Tramble Official Website
http://www.nichelletramble.com/

 

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