BLACK CAMELOT'S DAWN & THE RETURN OF MADAME HOT TEMPER

Armed hate groups target successful Black businesspeople and philanthropists in Myers’ thriller.

Donald Alexander and six of his friends and colleagues belong to a group dubbed Black Camelot by the media. They’re affluent Black people in New York City, coronated by the media as royalty (“Every story will brand them as the Kings, Queens, Princes, and Princesses of New York City. We follow their lives closely as the city’s royal family. We write about how they brought the spirit of Camelot to New York”). Not everyone feels that way; enraged white supremacist groups dispatch assassins to kill them. Fortunately, the covert Society of Protectors has its collective eyes on Black Camelot, and their highly skilled members thwart the assassination attempts. Meanwhile, Dawn Davis Stuart, also known as Madame Hot Temper, is back in NYC after serving a prison sentence for murdering her husband. She works with popular gossip reporter Luke McFlemming to expose a conspiracy surrounding Bronson Pagent, one of her late husband’s seedy real-estate rivals. This loathsome man, who has secret ties to a hate group, may be setting his sights on both Dawn and Luke. Myers’ follow-up to The Publisher’s Dilemma (2020) rallies its smart, able Black cast and aptly portrays the sad backlash from detestable racists. Unfortunately, Donald, along with fellow returning characters like Kwame Mills and Samantha Rivers, often fades in the background. Surprisingly, Luke garners most of the spotlight, despite the fact that he’s a tactless, self-absorbed, and disliked reporter who many other characters mercilessly (and tediously) mock or chastise. The white supremacists pose very little threat, as Society members easily take down a string of incompetent assassins in swift confrontations to which Donald and the others are typically oblivious. Still, the seven who make up Black Camelot are likably tenderhearted, and “The Voice,” who leads the Society, is delightfully mysterious.

A remarkable cast elevates this routine but socially aware thriller.