Money Rock

A Family’s Story of Cocaine, Race, and Ambition in the New South

This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
Buy on Amazon Buy on BN.com Buy on Bookshop.org
*This page contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you.
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app

1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date 25 Sep 2018 | Archive Date 25 Sep 2018

Talking about this book? Use #MoneyRock #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!


Description

“An ambitious look at the cost of urban gentrification.”
Atlanta-Journal Constitution

“Kelley could have written a fine book about Charlotte’s drug trade in the ’80s and ’90s, filled with shoot-outs and flashy jewelry. What she accomplishes with Money Rock, however, is far more laudable.”
Charlotte Magazine

“Pam Kelley knows a good story when she sees one—and Money Rock is a hell of a story. . . like a New South version of The Wire.”
Shelf Awareness

Meet Money Rock—young, charismatic, and Charlotte’s flashiest coke dealer—in a riveting social history with echoes of Ghettoside and Random Family

Meet Money Rock. He's young. He's charismatic. He's generous, often to a fault. He's one of Charlotte's most successful cocaine dealers, and that's what first prompted veteran reporter Pam Kelley to craft this riveting social history—by turns action-packed, uplifting, and tragic—of a striving African American family, swept up and transformed by the 1980s cocaine epidemic.

The saga begins in 1963 when a budding civil rights activist named Carrie gives birth to Belton Lamont Platt, eventually known as Money Rock, in a newly integrated North Carolina hospital. Pam Kelley takes readers through a shootout that shocks the city, a botched FBI sting, and a trial with a judge known as "Maximum Bob." When the story concludes more than a half century later, Belton has redeemed himself. But three of his sons have met violent deaths and his oldest, fresh from prison, struggles to make a new life in a world where the odds are stacked against him.

This gripping tale, populated with characters both big-hearted and flawed, shows how social forces and public policies—racism, segregation, the War on Drugs, mass incarceration—help shape individual destinies. Money Rock is a deeply American story, one that will leave readers reflecting on the near impossibility of making lasting change, in our lives and as a society, until we reckon with the sins of our past.

“An ambitious look at the cost of urban gentrification.”
Atlanta-Journal Constitution

“Kelley could have written a fine book about Charlotte’s drug trade in the ’80s and ’90s, filled with shoot-outs...

Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9781620973271
PRICE $26.99 (USD)
PAGES 288

Average rating from 6 members


Featured Reviews

This was a well written book. It focused on a central character and his family to tell the larger story of the war on drugs, mass incarceration, and the aftermath. Having the book focused on a central character made the story very compelling. The author did a good job of explaining the societal overlay and how it shaped the destinies of the family members.

This is an excellent book for high school or college students who will find it engaging while learning the history of the time period. It is a book that will elicit good discussions about public policy particularly how housing still is shaped by red lining. The storytelling, pacing and tone are excellent.

Was this review helpful?

This book was so very interesting. This is the story of Belton Lamont Platt, his life and how his decisions may have affected other members of his family. The story starts in a project in Charlotte, NC. Mom was very strong, Dad not so strong. We then get a glimpse into this man's life, the good, the bad and the indifferent. Yes, there is abuse, violence, cheating but it is also a story of how one can turn their life around. Very concise read with enough information to give you a picture of his life and how he chose to deal with it. Highly recommended. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publsiher for the ARC of this book in return for my honest review.

Was this review helpful?

Readers who liked this book also liked: