Smith and Boggs, two of the first black police officers in post-war 1950 racially charged Atlanta are trying to keep the peace in the over-crowded, poverty-stricken, and crime-riddled black quarters called Darktown by the white officers. But, in the white neighbourhood of Hanford park, tensions have been inflamed by the purchase of homes by three black families, one of them Smith’s sister and her husband. Although they have no jurisdiction, they find themselves more and more involved since it is clear that the white police will do nothing to protect the black families. This is also white officer Denny Rakestraw’s neighbourhood. His refusal to join the Klan has not made him any friends on the force and, although he is willing to help Smith and Boggs a little, it is putting a strain on his relationship with his family and his good will towards the black families.

Lightning Men by author Thomas Mullen is the sequel to Darktown and continues the story of Smith and Boggs as well as Rakestraw. Smith and Boggs must deal with racial tension, blockbusting, corruption, and drug smuggling while dealing with all the restrictions placed on their abilities to do their jobs. Among the dangers they must face are the Columbians, a Nazi group whose leader has just got out of prison and not coincidentally just before flyers appear in Hanford park:

<i>The flyer’s capital letters made its message especially clear: ‘Zoned as a White Community’. Below it was a lightning bolt, blood red.</i>

Lightning Men is one heck of a compelling historical noir/police procedural but it is also a well-researched commentary on race relations in post-war America – although Jim Crow is dying, lynchings are giving way to blockbusting and police corruption, and the KKK is trading their robes for businesses, it is clear that violence is still seething very close to the surface in this seemingly more civilized time and not just among the rising neo-nazi movement but among the ‘good’ white citizens, that these Nazis are just the open face of the Lightning Men. This is a well-written, well-plotted and, given the recent rise of the alt-right in the US, timely story.

<i>Thanks to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster Canada for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review</i>