Gill, Jonathan

Gill’s captivating, fast-paced narrative reads like a thriller and will leave readers wanting more. Highly recommended for those who love stories of espionage.

This comprehensive, engagingly written treatment appears to be well researched; however, although it is buoyed by illustrations, a bibliography, and an index, the absence of source notes makes it more useful to general readers than to scholars. Anecdotes and vignettes about iconic places such as the Polo Grounds, 125th Street, the Apollo Theater, and the Globe Trotters should please New York City history mavens. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 9/1/10.]

The iconic neighborhood is sometimes called "the capital of Black America," but Gill takes readers back to the area's earliest peoples and on through Dutch, British, and American domination...