Cover illustration: Ken Nwadiogbu
‘ . . . even when you do what they ask, they still don’t see you as a somebody.’ (p 264)
Murder and more
My reading for this blog only occasionally strays into YA rather than MG, and even more rarely into murder mystery, but I am hugely grateful that chance brought me to this book by US author and filmmaker Nick Brooks. It is not only the cleverest and most engrossing whodunit I have encountered for quite some time but it is so much more too.
In style, although not in location, characters or language, Promise Boys reminds me most of the recent adult mysteries by Janice Hallett. That is to say, the reader is left to piece together events from the accounts of a wide range of characters, not all of whom are necessarily reliable or trustworthy. Their often brief testimonies are interspersed with mobile and text communications, news reports and other information, so that the reader has to work towards an understanding of the mystery, following a route strewn with clues and red herrings, in a way that is deeply intriguing and utterly compelling. And, as the story unfolds, what comes to fascinate just as much as the mystery itself is what we discover about the lives, characters and motives of those involved.
Set around the ‘Urban Promise Prep School’, an institution which purports to improve the education and life chances of inner-city Black boys through extreme discipline, the central mystery is who shot and killed the school’s founding and domineering principal - and, of course, why. The book’s protagonists are three boys (two Black and one Hispanic) who rapidly emerge as the principal suspects, readily targeted because of their skin colour and background. The complex narrative develops as they desperately work to try to prove their innocence- if, indeed, they are guilt free after all.
USA to UK
The cultural setting of the story and the voices of the characters, especially of the three boys, are brought vividly and sympathetically to life. It is consequently easy to identify with them.We understand who they are, how they think, why they behave as they do. The clever format of Nick Brook’s book, the skilled precision of his writing and his masterful manipulation of our feelings, make this a most immersive read.
I am delighted that this US book is now published here in the UK, where it should attract a large audience. I sincerely hope this will include many white as well as black kids. I am sure all will enjoy it enormously. The writing does contain an amount of vocabulary and slang which is an absolutely essential to its authentic feel but which may be unfamiliar to UK readers. However, meaning can generally be inferred from context, or quickly Googled where necessary. (Just what are ‘pupusas’? Well, that’s another thing I didn’t know before, but do now.) Black kids will I am sure delight in finding themselves reflected so recognisably in a book, but Promise Boys offers a great deal to all readers, and on more than one level.
You could say that Promise Boys is a YA equivalent to Sharna Jackson’s recent excellent MG mysteries featuring Black protagonists*, but it is, of course, much deeper and richer, as befits its older audience. (This one, I would think, is best suited to readers from around 13 onwards.)
All that matters
Some time ago, poet W.H.Auden wrote: ‘There must always be two kinds of art: escape-art, for man needs escape as he needs food and deep sleep, and parable-art, that art which shall teach man to unlearn hatred and learn love.’ Written in the early 20th Century I think we can accept that his word choice was of the period. (Today I would strongly want to replace each of the uses of ‘man’ with ‘people’ and ‘he’ with ‘they’.) However, I think the sentiment holds true and is most certainly applicable to books. I particularly like the expression, ‘ . . . to unlearn hatred and learn love.’
What is especially remarkable about Promise Boys is that it fulfils quite wonderfully not just one but both of Auden’s essential functions. It is a totally compelling, intensely involving narrative that transports the reader out of their immediate reality. Yet it also reminds me of another quote, this time from UK comedian, broadcaster and podcaster, Robin Ince, who writes, ‘I don’t retreat into books, I advance out of them.’** I finished reading Promise Boys with greater awareness, greater understanding and, I hope, a little more humanity than I started. For it is ultimately far more than a clever, wonderfully crafted whodunit. Nick Brooks tellingly contrasts the false promise of the school with the true worth of its pupils. It is a testament to Black boys (as well as girls and others from minorities and areas of socio-economic deprivation) who cannot, must not, be stereotyped as delinquents or continually forced to toe the line of white expectations. They do not deserve to be to criminalised without cause, or dismissed as invisible, worthless and inconsequential, as ‘nobody’. They are most certainly somebody, extraordinary individuals with hope and potential. They are members of our community with much to give, with lives, with futures - and yes, with genuine promise.
* High Rise Mystery, Mic Drop, Sharna Jackson, Knights Of, 2019, 2020
** Bibliomaniac, Robin Ince, Atlantic Books, 2022