Frank Carlson Library

"Cedric The Entertainer's debut novel Flipping Boxcars is a valentine to close-knit black families and tightly woven communities during the Depression and World War II. The story is also an homage to Cedric's grandfather, who in this tale emerges as Babe. He is a charismatic and widely loved man. He is also a gambler, whose gift of gab often gets him out of tricky situations, which is often. Babe is also a dreamer, something he shares in common with...

Leo struggles to reconnect with his estranged son and fights his gambling addiction while becoming increasingly consumed by an undercover case involving a missing Native street kid who is found brutally murdered by gang members.

Crossing the Red Man River when it was in full flood wasn't the wisest thing gambler Duke Benedict and his cowboy sidekick Hank Brazos had ever done. And when the ferry they were riding tore free of its ropes, they found themselves driven downstream until their wild journey ended on the banks of Peaceful Valley. Here, a religious order had built itself a town... but the Devil had settled in these parts too. For one of the townsfolk had just been murdered,...