Publisher's Synopsis
It is December 1972. Sweets Maybrey climbs the stairs to his office. He is wounded from an assassination attempt, blood slowing leaking out of his neck. He sits at his ancient desk, awaiting the arrival of the person who orchestrated the attempt on his life. He knows that they are on their way to finish the job. While waiting he considers all that has led him to this point. Six months earlier Sweets Maybrey was a rich, powerful twenty-year-old, the new boss of black crime in west Philadelphia. Every week his subordinates pressed envelopes full of pungent cash into his hands, the proceeds from bookmaking, drugs and prostitution. Every day beautiful women offered their bodies for his pleasure. Men twice his age humbled themselves before him. He, seemingly, was a man who had it all. But Sweets, wanting to show the "old heads" that he was a worthy leader, decided that he wanted more. He went to war over the so called Green Fields, areas outside Philly with a growing black population. This decision placed him in conflict with his Mafia straw bosses, triggering a second front to his war. Sweets' personal life was no less dangerous as his mentor, bodyguard and fiance all had motive to kill him. Back in his office Sweets Maybrey presses a damp towel to his neck - the blood isn't slowing down. He needs to go to the hospital but he does not rise. He will wait, wait until his would-be killer shows themselves. Then, he will kill or be killed. Young, Gifted and Bad is the second novel in the Sweets Maybrey series, a follow-up to the debut Sweets.
