The debut novel of K'wan — and the book that built its publisher — opens with St. Louis Alexander, called Lou-Loc, a hunted man: after the murder of a dirty Los Angeles detective he flees to New York one step ahead of the gas chamber, determined to start over. There he falls for Satin Angelino, who is keeping a secret that could cost him his life. A cornerstone of modern street literature, Gangsta was among the first releases of the then-new Triple Crown Publications, and its success turned that small Columbus house into the defining publisher of the urban-fiction boom.
Author: K'wan · Original publisher: Triple Crown Publications (Columbus, Ohio), 2002
