{"product_id":"only-the-wicked","title":"Only the Wicked","description":"\u003cb\u003ePrivate eye Ivan Monk takes on his most personal mystery to date--and chases answers deep into America's haunted past.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eLong ago, Marshall Spears was a hero of the ballpark. In a time when baseball--and the nation--was segregated, he played in the vaunted Negro Leagues. Decades later, Old Man Spears is living out his days as a fixture in a barbershop in South Central. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eOne afternoon, PI Ivan Monk--a shop regular--learns that Spears's former teammate was Kennesaw Riles. From family lore, Monk knows Riles is his cousin who was ostracized for the damning testimony he gave during a controversial murder trial in the '60s--testimony that put a firebrand civil rights leader behind bars. Before Monk can hear more, Old Man Spears drops dead while listening to a ballgame on the radio. Even stranger, the long missing Riles shows up at the Old Man's funeral services, and dies soon after. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eMonk knows the timing is not a coincidence. He follows the mystery to the Mississippi Delta. There, he unravels the truth behind the murder of two civil rights era activists. Eventually Monk zeroes in on a group of shadowy Mississippi businessmen-turned-philanthropists who may not have reformed their ways as they claim. Far from Los Angeles, the tenacious private eye confronts his own family history as well as a brand of hatred thought to have died with Jim Crow.\r","brand":"Gary Phillips","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":45473071825132,"sku":"9781641294454","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0684\/1791\/3068\/files\/9781641294454.jpg?v=1720718732","url":"https:\/\/intl.allstora.com\/products\/only-the-wicked","provider":"Allstora","version":"1.0","type":"link"}