Payback is a Dog

He has intermittent flashbacks, collages of guns, crushing memories of a wife found murdered in a ditch, a young son, now estranged, who was kidnapped and then found walking alone in a convenience store parking lot. His name is Ti Boukman (pronounced tea book-mon); he is a Haitian–born, African–American filmmaker and sometimes-political activist, who solves crimes to help out friends. His female partner is South African born TV Reporter Malaika Gifford. His frequent sidekick is a homeless man who once had a family and a fancy house in a Black suburb.

Payback is a Dog begins in 1996 with a fatal auto accident which turns out to be a murder, motivated by events that took place 25 years ago. Back then, dangerously ambitious FBI Agent, Allen Serica manipulated a paid informant to commit heinous acts, and later illegally removed the uncensored documents delineating these acts from the bureau files. Serica is now security chief at a major corporation and when his stolen files turn up missing, he searches for them brutally. Soon, revenge becomes a popular motivation. In the end, there is one big bloody payback, culminating this novel’s Caribbean–style basket weave of a murder mystery, love story and political thriller. The 1973 hit song by the Stylistics inspired the title.