INTO THE GRAY SCALE

A dead trafficker starts dealing a drug found in the afterlife in Mobuogwu’s urban fantasy novel.

Andrew “AJ” Jackson is a low-level drug dealer selling weed and party drugs at a local college. When he’s suspected of giving the cops information, he’s murdered in front of his mother and sister. If AJ thought death would get him out of the drug-running game, he was sorely mistaken: The kingpin of the operation, Governor Reginald Tyson, has plans for AJ to traffic a different sort of product, now that he’s deceased. Upon waking after being shot, AJ finds himself in Animmo, a place for the dead (“No, Mr. Jackson, you’re not dreaming”), where he feels no emotions, no pain, nothing. Before he can get settled into what will become his new home, he is visited by Kester McKean, a fellow dealer in life who now mentors AJ in collecting and delivering a strange substance being sold in the land of the living as the drug “skooches.” AJ might not feel anything anymore, but his mother and sister are still in danger if he doesn’t comply, even if he doesn’t like the collection process. Among the living, Detective Maleek Shapiro is investigating an increasing number of deaths tied to this new street drug, and the name “Reginald” keeps coming up. Researching skooches, its dealers, and various other crimes connected to it leads to Maleek working with the Feds on their ongoing investigation. In this dark urban fantasy novel, Mobuogwu compellingly unspools a winding tale of drugs, death, and dark forces. The world of Animmo is a fascinating one, with lore and practices that could have used more explanation—for example, readers learn how the drug delivery system works, but not how it was discovered. With so much happening on both planes of existence, a less complicated narrative, or one more intensely focused on certain aspects, would have made this complicated narrative easier to digest.

An intriguing but uneven fantasy with a compelling, expansive world and an awkward plot.