Ash Dark as Night

Written by Gary Phillips

In the follow-up to One-Shot Harry, fearless photographer and occasional private eye Harry Ingram takes on a
missing persons case while at a professional crossroads after one of his photos puts him on the LAPD’s radar.
An atmospheric dive into a city on the brink brimming with remarkable historical detail, Ash Dark as Night is
perfect for fans of Walter Mosley and James Ellroy.
Los Angeles, 1965. Tempers have boiled over in the Watts neighborhood, sparked by the traffic stop of two
Black motorists, the Frye brothers, by the Highway Patrol. Freelance crime photographer Harry Ingram is on
the scene, capturing images of the cops as they unleash batons, dogs, and water hoses on the predominantly
Black crowd. When he snaps proof of an unarmed man being shot down by the LAPD, he winds up in the
hospital, beaten, his camera confiscated. Proof of the killing seems lost—until Ingram’s girlfriend, Anita Claire,
retrieves the film roll in a daring rescue, and the photo makes front-page news.
A recuperating Ingram is approached by Betty Payton, a comrade of Anita’s mother, who wants Ingram’s help
tracking down her friend Moses “Mose” Tolbert. Ingram follows the investigation down a rabbit hole of burglary
rings, bank robberies, looted cash, and city-wide conspiracies—all while grappling with his newfound fame,
which puts him in the sightlines of LAPD’s intelligence division.
Boiling over with wry humor, fascinating historical details, and intimate atmosphere, Ash Dark as Night is a
nail-biting ride-along through midcentury Los Angeles with a crime fiction legend in the driver’s seat.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books Audio
• Release date: Apr 2, 2024
• ISBN: 9798891783904

Gary Phillips

In addition to PM Press reissuing co-editor Gary Phillips’ The Jook, his mystery novella The Underbelly, was published as part of PM’s Outspoken Authors series. He is also editor and contributor to Orange County Noir, writes a regular column on pop culture on fourstory.org, Donuts at 2 A.M., and is writing two retro spy characters—Operator 5, set in the pulp period of the Great Depression, and super spy Derek Flint in the swinging sixties—for Moonstone Comics.