Mark Anthony, The Take Down

The Take Down

Mark Anthony

Griffin, October 2006, $11.95, 320 pp.

ISBN 0312340796

Paula Winslow is a twenty five year old African American FBI agent who was stationed in St. Louis but who wants to get transferred to New York, and her chance came when her boss asked her if she was willing to go undercover. The FBI knows, but can't prove that the Calvino crime family is laundering money through Gun Clap records owned by Tyrell "Supreme" Morgan, and fronted by Horse Hopkins who the public assumes is the real owner.

Paula goes undercover as Jessica Jackson, owner of a modeling agency who supplies girls for videos and other legitimate enterprises to Gun Clap records, which leads to her meeting Horse and Supreme who end up trusting her. She also maneuvers her way into life of Angela, the daughter of the head of the Calvino family and introduces her to Horse. Briefly hip hop and the mafia are in bed together, but when Supreme and Horse feel that the family is dissing them, they start a war that ends up with Jessica being kidnapped on a plane ride to Mexico.

There is plenty of action, intrigue and blood and gore in this seat of your pants thriller. Readers get an insiders' look at corruption in the record industry where collateral damage is the norm, while watching the protagonist go to extraordinary lengths to keep the investigation moving in the direction she wants it to go. The characters are well drawn, and readers know what makes them tick, though the most sympathetic character is Angela Calvino who is trapped by birth into a lifestyle that doesn't suit her.