Book Two: Your Corner Dark by Desmond Hall

I met Desmond Hall at CrimeConn last summer. I enjoyed his lunchtime seminar so much that I bought this book.

Frankie Green is waiting to hear if he will receive a full scholarship and be able to leave Jamaica for the United States. He gets the good news but barely has a chance to celebrate before his father Samson is shot and develops a staph infection that requires expensive medication.

Despite Samson's abuse of him, Frankie feels obligated to care for his father. Frankie must join his uncle's gang in exchange for payment of the medical bills and forget about his dreams of college and the United States. 

I like the book, but it took me about 100 pages to really get into it. That also happened to me in the last book I read. I wonder if it's because the book jackets get right to the main plotline, and the build up in the novel is too slow...Something to think about.