Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

In her latest novel, editor and essayist Golden (Don't Play in the Sun, 2004, etc.) examines the vexing problem of cops who kill unarmed civilians. It's night when a traffic stop goes bad for officer Carson Blake. Carson, 12 years on the force, has never fired his gun. Afraid for his life, he shoots the driver dead, realizing too late the driver's gun was a cell phone. This happens in a deserted parking lot in suburban Maryland; both Carson and the victim are black. Golden shows both men at fault: Carson should have waited for backup; the victim should have stayed on the ground and kept his hands away from his waistband. What comes next for Carson is anguished remorse and endless bad dreams. He's a decent man; no saint, but certainly not a psycho. He and his wife Bunny, a commercial artist, live comfortable lives, with three beautiful kids. Carson's low point comes when he puts a gun in his mouth; he is saved by a vision of his loving family. Then come sessions with Carrie Petersen, cop-turned-therapist. Carson talks about his harsh father, Jimmy; the revelation that he was not his actual daddy drove him to the streets, where he felt in control as he mugged easy victims. Control. Isn't that why Carson joined the force, probes Carrie? Reluctantly, Carson agrees. Though he is cleared by a grand jury and Internal Affairs, Carson still feels far from redemption. All this is entirely credible, but here Golden falters, switching for a while to the grieving parents of the victim, then jumping forward two years (Carson has left the force and become, implausibly, a real-estate agent), and lastly having his stepfather's hatefulness surface in Carson, who tears into his 15-year-old son Juwan for being gay. It's too late in the game for these eruptions, which distract from Carson's attempt to make peace with the victim's family. A solidly grounded rendering of cop culture, but spotty as a story of personal redemption. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Library Journal
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A wealthy young black man is pulled over for speeding, reaches for his cell phone, and is shot to death by a jumpy police officer-who also is black. With a national tour. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

The author of half a dozen books on race, both fiction and nonfiction, Golden tackles the subject from a different perspective in her latest novel about a black policeman who kills an innocent young black man. Thinking the driver he just pulled over is reaching for a gun, Maryland police officer Carson Blake shoots first. But what Carson thought was a gun turns out to be a cellphone. Carson; his wife, Bunny; and their three children struggle through the aftermath as Golden explores the baggage that comes with the badge for a black family man. The story has potential, but Golden's flat prose and bloodless dialogue drain it. She does offer some studied insight into a fraught dynamic, but the novel as a whole is standard and sentimental. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Carson Blake is a confident Maryland police officer in his mid-30s. He is struggling with the cynical life cycle of young black men--being a product of that experience and having the responsibility to serve and protect the larger community. His fairly comfortable life is drastically changed when a routine traffic stop results in his use of deadly force against an unarmed black man, a schoolteacher whose professor parents live within the general area where Blake's family lives. Obsessed with guilt about the shooting, Blake misses his son's struggle with sexual awareness and gender identification. His wife, Bunny, labors to save Blake from going off the deep end and balance his need to do right by his victim's family and his own. Golden deftly portrays the life-altering consequences of an unfortunate act, the threats to Blake's family and the victim's. But she also artfully reflects on police brutality from inside the black middle class, where neither affluence nor good intentions offer sufficient protection. --Vernon Ford Copyright 2006 Booklist