Ivan Monk Mysteries

The mystery that launched Gary Phillips's career: Black private eye Ivan Monk investigates the murder of a Korean shop owner in the aftermath of the 1992 Los Angeles riots. In 1992, Los Angeles burned. In the aftermath of the Rodney King beating and subsequent riots, a ground-breaking ceremony at the infamous intersection of Florence and Normandie unearths the body of a Korean shop owner. Black private eye Ivan Monk searches for the killer-many suspect the motives for the murder were racial. But then another body turns up, and while the FBI and the Rolling Daltons-the largest gang in the city-dog Monk's trail, Monk begins to question just how many people will be involved, and how many will die before he can find the truth.

THE MYSTERY SERIES THAT LAUNCHED GARY PHILLIPS'S CAREER Private eye Ivan Monk's search for a killer lead to the unraveling of a far-reaching white supremacist conspiracy. Robert "Scatterboy" Williams is a small-time hustler selling bogus Cartier watches in Pacific Shores, a port city south of Los Angeles. One day, he's gunned down in the street, seemingly at random. Then drug dealer Ronny Aaron is shot and killed leaving a liquor store. Shortly thereafter, college student Jimmy Henderson is rendered comatose after two bullets to his body. The three victims have nothing in common save the neighborhood where they were shot, and the color of their skin. The police categorize Scatterboy's murder as business as usual. But his girlfriend convinces private eye Ivan Monk to find the killer. What looks like three unrelated shootings of Black men in Southern California will put Monk on a tortuous trail unraveling a larger nefarious plan: the rise of an extremist demagogue.

When Black private eye Ivan Monk takes on a case in a housing project in South Los Angeles, he finds himself facing off with corrupt police and gang members—and indicted for murder. Heat is building in the Rancho Tajuata Housing Projects—and not just because it's summer in L.A. When a Mexican family is killed by a firebombing, local rage threatens to grow out of control. The pressure is on to solve this case quickly to help deescalate the tense situation. At the request of the tenant's security force, P.I. Ivan Monk is called in to find the killer. To track the murderer down, Monk must delve into a tangled history leading all the way back to the 1965 Watts riots—a hunt that reveals layers of buried racism and corruption. Monk sorts through the complexities of gang conflicts and governmental kickbacks, only to find himself at odds with the police, disillusioned by his mentor and, after a fierce struggle with some gang members, under indictment for murder. Monk must race to clear his name before time runs out, and a bad night falls on the Rancho Tajuata Projects, this time for good…

Black private eye Ivan Monk takes on his most personal mystery to date, and chases answers deep into America's shameful past. Half a century ago, Old Man Spears was a hero of the ballpark. In an age when baseball was segregated, he played in the Negro Leagues, providing hope for a generation of oppressed African Americans. Decades later, Spears is an old man in a barbershop making ends meet. An offhand comment about a former teammate, Kennesaw Riles, shocks one of his customers, private eye Ivan Monk, who has deeply buried memories of a ball-playing cousin by that name. Monk knows little of Riles, who has been on the outs with his family since his questionable testimony put civil rights leader Damon Creel behind bars for murder back in the 60s. But before Monk can get the full story, Spears drops dead. Days later, Kennesaw Riles follows suit. Monk knows that the timing is not a coincidence. To understand the pair of deaths as well as his own past, Monk digs into his family history. He follows the mystery to Mississippi, where he further unravels the murder of two civil rights activists and connects the dots to a group of Mississippi businessmen who may not have changed their ways as much as they claim. Far from Los Angeles, the tenacious P.I. is forced to confront a brand of hatred that he thought had died with Jim Crow. An LA thriller with roots in the Deep South, “Only the Wicked” weaves together baseball, blues, and backwoods politics in iconic P.I. Ivan Monk's most personal and politically resonant case to date.