Book Description

The three novels in Waiwaiole’s dark and dangerous Wiley series chronicle the tragic twists and turns in the lives of two old friends after those lives have completely gone off the rails in Portland, Oregon. In LEON’S LEGACY, Waiwaiole goes back to where it all began — back when Wiley and Leon were high school kids pursuing the state basketball championship. Unfortunately, it was also the year that the crack gangs from California began to sink their talons into Portland’s inner city, a juxtaposition that threatens not only their hoop quest but also their lives. An inner-city high school teacher and basketball coach when this actually occurred in Portland, Waiwaiole has a wealth of first-hand exposure to this story and the writing chops to deliver it convincingly. Praise for LEON’S LEGACY … “Lono Waiwaiole writes with a command you don’t see much anymore. He is the opposite of the winking hard-boil writer of today. He writes authentically and knowingly about America’s underclass, the streets and being an outsider. Leon’s Legacy is an unexpectedly honest novel about a violent teenage world, peopled with intensely believable characters whose upside down humanity will grab you.” —Kent Harrington, author of The Red Jungle and Rat Machine Possible blurbs (most for previous books; not sure about Christgau’s) … “Lono Waiwaiole’s Wiley novels are the past and the future of hard-boiled crime fiction, rolled up together inside prose that’s as cold and as shiny as the city streets. But there’s hope and redemption there too, glinting like the morning sun on wet pavement.” —Lee Child “With prose so sharp you can’t even feel the cut, scalpel-like in its precision, and driving to the heart by way of the gut, Lono Waiwaiole is that rarest of writers — brutally honest, unflinchingly brave, and not about to take no for an answer. Neither Wiley nor Waiwaiole are to be missed!” —Greg Rucka “Noir fans need to know about Waiwaiole right now. He’s the real thing, and he’s too good to miss.” —Bill Ott (Booklist starred review) “A tale of basketball, friendship, and street gang hostility that reads with the pace of a blistering fast break.” —John Christgau, author of Tricksters in the Madhouse: Lakers vs. Globetrotters, 1948 and The Origins of the Jump Shot: Eight Men Who Shook the World of Basketball