Why am I passionate about this?

I read history to better understand myself, others, and the world around me; I write historical fiction to share what I have learned. At New York University, I was the Jacob K. Javits Fellow in fiction. In addition to Our Man in the Dark, I am the author of The Abduction of Smith and Smith, one of Huffington Post's 25 Necessary Books By Black Authors (2015), and Huffington Post's 50 Amazing Books By Black Authors from the Past Five Years (2019).


I wrote

Our Man in the Dark

By Rashad Harrison,

Book cover of Our Man in the Dark

What is my book about?

Our Man in the Dark is a noir take on the American civil rights movement of the 1960s. Martin Luther…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of The Third Man

Rashad Harrison Why did I love this book?

According to the author, The Third Man “was never written to be read, but only to be seen.” However, I love that it is in the text where the characters—who cast such long shadows in the film—were given their original weight and heft. The story is simple, but the history is inescapable. Rollo Martins, an American writer investigating the death of his friend, unveils a black market penicillin ring. The cynicism and disillusionment of postwar Vienna are vivid and palpable. Martins—earnest and relentless—shifts between innocence and ignorance, leaving you to wonder if he isn’t Greene’s commentary on America itself.

By Graham Greene,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked The Third Man as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Rollo Martins' usual line is the writing of cheap paperback Westerns under the name of Buck Dexter. But when his old friend Harry Lime invites him to Vienna, he jumps at the chance. With exactly five pounds in his pocket, he arrives only just in time to make it to his friend's funeral. The victim of an apparently banal street accident, the late Mr. Lime, it seems, had been the focus of a criminal investigation, suspected of nothing less than being "the worst racketeer who ever made a dirty living in this city." Martins is determined to clear his friend's…


Book cover of The Ballad of Black Tom

Rashad Harrison Why did I love this book?

Set in 1920’s New York, a con man and mediocre guitarist strums his way through a city beleaguered by racism, the occult, and the impending arrival of a powerful being from another dimension. One of the many great things about this book is that it brings African-Americans, historically invisible in speculative fiction, to the forefront. The book has a bone to pick with the racism of the Lovecraft oeuvre and his story, “The Horror at Red Hook.” LaValle is a master storyteller, and you find yourself engaged in a tale that is funny, poignant, and chilling. Yes, Black Tom is grappling with Lovecraft, but it’s evident LaValle doesn’t need him.

By Victor LaValle,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked The Ballad of Black Tom as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

People move to New York looking for magic and nothing will convince them it isn't there.

Charles Thomas Tester hustles to put food on the table, keep the roof over his father's head, from Harlem to Flushing Meadows to Red Hook. He knows what magic a suit can cast, the invisibility a guitar case can provide, and the curse written on his skin that attracts the eye of wealthy white folks and their cops. But when he delivers an occult tome to a reclusive sorceress in the heart of Queens, Tom opens a door to a deeper realm of magic…


Book cover of The Cutting Season

Rashad Harrison Why did I love this book?

Caren Gray, the manager of a historic plantation, learns the body of a migrant worker has been discovered on the grounds. Searching for answers, she stumbles upon another crime that occurred over a century ago in the era of slavery and may hold the key to unlocking revelations in the present. Locke does a fantastic job of balancing the two timelines for great effect. History can haunt us, but this book leaves you with the eerie feeling of being surveilled by the past.

By Attica Locke,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Cutting Season as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

By the prize-winning author of Heaven My Home, a taut crime novel perfect for reading groups.

Bury your bodies deep and your secrets deeper.

Just after dawn, Caren inspects the grounds of Belle Vie, the historic plantation house she manages. Back at her office, the gardener calls to tell her she missed something. Something terrible. At a distance, she didn't see. A young woman lying face down in a shallow grave, her throat cut clean.

So there will be police, asking questions. The family who own Belle Vie will have to be told. There's a school group on the way…


Book cover of Forty Acres: A Thriller

Rashad Harrison Why did I love this book?

A Black attorney is forced to participate in a plot to bring back slavery—with a particular variation. What could go wrong? Taut writing and suspenseful storytelling carry the weight of history in Forty Acres. The concept is bold and audacious, and I never questioned a word of it. The execution is that impressive.

By Dwayne Alexander Smith,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Forty Acres as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Martin Grey, a smart, talented young lawyer working out of a storefront in Queens, is taken under the wing of a secretive group made up of America's most powerful, wealthy, and esteemed black men. He's dazzled by what they have accomplished, and they seem to think he has the potential to be one of them. They invite him for a weekend away from it all - no wives, no cell phones, no talk of business. But what he discovers, far from home, is a disturbing organisation which challenges his deepest convictions...A novel of rage and compassion, trust and betrayal, Forty…


Book cover of The Spook Who Sat by the Door

Rashad Harrison Why did I love this book?

In the late ’60s, Dan Freeman, a Black token hire at the CIA shares spy-craft with Black revolutionaries. The book may claim to be a satire, but it demands to be taken seriously. The historical implications of the novel are obvious; there are plenty of exhilarating thrills, and the writing bops with a jazz-like cool. The mystery, however, is subterranean and internal. Freeman has perfected many masks to survive in America, to infiltrate the CIA, and to earn the respect of revolutionaries. The amazing thing is that there is so much suspense in discovering which identity will truly take hold.

By Sam Greenlee,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Spook Who Sat by the Door as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A classic in the black literary tradition, The Spook Who Sat by the Door is both a comment on the civil rights problems in the United States in the late 1960s and a serious attempt to focus on the issue of black militancy.

Dan Freeman, the ""spook who sat by the door,"" is enlisted in the CIA's elitist espionage program. Upon mastering agency tactics, however, he drops out to train young Chicago blacks as ""Freedom Fighters"" in this explosive, award-winning novel.

As a story of one man's reaction to ruling-class hypocrisy, the book is autobiographical and personal. As a tale…


Explore my book 😀

Our Man in the Dark

By Rashad Harrison,

Book cover of Our Man in the Dark

What is my book about?

Our Man in the Dark is a noir take on the American civil rights movement of the 1960s. Martin Luther King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference have led the civil rights struggle to a point of unprecedented progress. J. Edgar Hoover and his FBI want to ruin King.

Their best chance falls on John Estem, a lonely accountant working for the SCLC, who has just embezzled $10,000. Estem’s greed and desperation attract the attention of the FBI, and they seize the opportunity to blackmail and force him into becoming an informant.

Book cover of The Third Man
Book cover of The Ballad of Black Tom
Book cover of The Cutting Season

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Book cover of The Woodland Stranger: A Fairy Tale with Benefits

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The Woodland Stranger: A Fairy Tale with Benefits

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Whoever said, Don't talk to strangers?


Burne hid behind a tree. He wanted to talk to the handsome man picking flowers at the edge of the forest, but he'd only flub it if he tried-he'd stumble over his words and blush bright red. And now the man is gone.


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