Title: Queen Cartel Gangster Blooded
Author: Simmeon Anderson
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 9781532018428
Pages: 418
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
Reviewed by: Anita Lock
Pacific Book Review
Continuing where Cartel Kings and Gangsters Chitty,Chitty, Bang, Bang leaves off, James and his buddy Wesley from the Locs gang are serving time, while their ladies, Pinkey and Suzie, depart New York City and move to Buffalo, working the streets. As a side job, Pinkey, Suzie, and five more of their crew become strippers at an upscale club. During one club evening, Pinkey directs her dance moves toward Bigz, a guy she knew back in junior high school. That evening, Pinkey shares her interest in working the street with Bigz, who is a cocaine and heroin drug dealer for a gang called the Bloods.
Back in NYC, Jay and Spade work the streets while James and Wesley are in jail. Gang wars increase, particularly between the Bloods and Crips. Amid tension and battles, a group of people at Federal Headquarters waits for the right moment to get all the gangs off the street. The truth is that while much of the killing takes place between the various gangs, the Cartel is behind most of the Bloods’ murders. Also in the mix are Tanya and her crew who have been in a turf war with the Locs. They have been “waiting to get back at Pinkey and Suzie for a long time.” One of Pinkey’s girls finds out at the club that Bigz plans to double-cross Pinkey and her crew. Whether the girls manage to escape remains to be seen.
Rising Cartel-thriller author, Simmeon Anderson, pens a chilling story of gang life in the second book of his Cartel series. Telling it straight up as it is, Anderson does not mince words depicting the various activities that take place in the hood. A mix of Urban lingo and storytelling, Anderson’s text is replete with details across the board. Characters, whose descriptions are rich, come alive with near non-stop dialogue scenes. Although fictional, Anderson’s narrative lends a haunting verisimilitude to behind-the-scenes life in the drug realm.
Anderson’s four-hundred-plus read is fast paced from the get-go. Chapters are short, but meaty. Scenes keep shifting from one scenario to the next, which is only one of a handful of driving forces to keep his narrative fluid. One key element, as briefly mentioned above, is his use of detail. His scenes, especially fighting and sex scenes, are very explicit—again filled with a chockfull of details. Audiences new to this form of narrative may find themselves confused with the language. Indeed, the hood is another world, and Anderson’s story is not for the faint of heart. Fortunately, Anderson provides a glossary of terms to aid in the reading experience.
Another aspect that Anderson weaves into his plot is irony. A good example of this is found in the perspective differences between Pinkey and her crew and James’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Campbell. Mrs. Campbell exemplifies the concerned (and a bit clueless) church-going parent as the girls lead dual lives. Although hood life has a repetitive rhythm to it, there are plenty of situations which are totally unexpected. Fans of Anderson have much to look forward to as he ends Queen Cartel Gangster Blooded on a mixed note, which is a perfect lead-in to his upcoming sequel, Rise and Fall Finally Cartel.
