The Vulture

Now back in print, The Vulture is the first novel by the legendary poet, musician, and so-called “godfather of rap” Gil Scott-Heron, written while he was still a university student.

First published in 1970 and digging the rhythms of the street, where the biggest deal life has to offer is getting high, The Vulture is a hip and fast-moving thriller, set in lower Manhattan. It relates the strange story of the murder of a teenage boy called John Lee—telling it in the words of four men who knew him when he was just another kid working after school, hanging out, waiting for something to happen. Just who did kill John Lee and why?