Carried By Six

• 2010 BCALA Literary Award

Returning home from his janitor’s job early one morning, Obie Bullock?leader of a Philadelphia anti-violence group?stumbles upon a crime scene: someone has just slit the throat of a police officer. Armed with the officer’s recovered revolver, Obie, an Iraq war vet, corners and kills the masked assassin, who turns out to be the youngest brother of a powerful, but imprisoned drug dealer. Demands for revenge follow, sparking the fast-paced action while simultaneously examining the lives of a working-class family struggling to survive in the projects of Philadelphia. Character-based, authentic, and gripping, this novel exposes the difficulties and danger of working to rid a neighborhood of drugs and violence so that future generations can grow up safe and secure.