Single Action

By: Jim Williams

When Johnny Dolan, a seasoned New York City investigative reporter, begins to cover the brutal murders of two computer programmers, it catapults him into the 1960’s underworld of organized crime and government corruption.

Working to uncover the crime details with earmarks of a mob hit, Dolan encounters an intricate web of facts and players. While interviewing Lydia Hayes, the beautiful ex-wife of one of the victims, Johnny discovers critical facts steering his investigation into the fast lane. Lydia reveals her ex was gay. Although Dolan’s own homosexuality was neither a plus or a minus in his professional life, it impacted his military career and life.

Johnny learns that Doug Hayes and his partner developed a computer program that could predict winning lottery numbers. Hoping to parlay this into cold hard cash, our victims have unwittingly orchestrated their deaths when they sign on with The Preacher, an intelligent, soft-spoken black man who runs the Harlem numbers racket known as Policy.

This connection catches the watchful eye of Bunny Ennis, a sadistic sociopath whose loyalty lies not with his Mafia boss, but with his own perverse pleasures and self-interest. Will Bunny and Lydia’s masochistic relationship ultimately impact her personal and professional relationship with her boss, Frederick Douglass Summerfield, an ambitious African American congressman from New York City’s Harlem District? His growing popularity and standing in the black community caught the attention of Lyndon Johnson and a whiff of corruption could stir the smoldering embers of racism, and shake the foundation of the President’s civil rights agenda. With stakes this high, can Johnny Dolan keep it together while he uncovers the truth?

Single Action, the latest crime thriller from Jim Williams, examines the ethical questions woven into a maze of twists and turns in this thought-provoking and suspenseful new novel.