Crime Partners

Book excerpt: Donald Goines, one of the most prolific writers of the 20th century, has influenced many of today's urban writers with his gritty, realistic look at the streets. For the first time in years, his classic Crime Partners is now repackaged and reissued in trade with a whole new look to attract new readers, as well as long-time fans of the legend himself. The godfather of urban lit, Donald Goines captures the raw, uncensored reality of life on the streets with a voice that has shaped hip hop culture. Prison buddies Billy Good and Jackie Walker made time pulling small jobs here and there. Not a bad living if you liked scraping by. The thing to worry about was the next fix. Nothing else mattered. When Billy and Jackie fell in with Kenyatta, a ghetto lord ready to take back the streets, they thought they'd hit the big time. Dealing with drug pushers and crooked cops in the name of justice sure felt good, but in a world where "kindness was the sweetest con of all," every bullet fired echoed with the sound of payback.