The Black Stiletto: Black & White: A Novel - Softcover

"Benson once again takes readers back to an era and makes it come alive by conveying the feeling through many different devices. The Black Stiletto: Black & White should please any of the millions of Spiderman and Batman fans." --The Midwest Book Review

"This second installment in the Black Stiletto series is just damn fun, effectively mixing the story of young, fearless Judy and the poignant struggle of Martin to protect his mother from an onslaught of publicity that she won't understand. Sheer Entertainment." --Booklist

"Benson's The Black Stiletto (2011) introduced masked crime fighter Judy Cooper, who fought crime, inflamed public imagination, and, like many vigilante heroes, got mixed reviews from law enforcement as she roamed 1958 New York City. In this cartoonish sequel set the next year, Judy takes on an established mob (Italian) and an emerging mob (Negro) with her fists, feet, and trademark stiletto while flirting with FBI agent John Richardson. In the present, Martin Talbot, Judy Cooper Talbot's son, discovers his aged mother's long-buried secrets as revealed in her diaries and an old 8-mm film. Tacking back and forth between the diaries and Talbot's dilemma when someone else produces the same film, Benson crafts dual dramas. Stiletto's girlish diary touches on cultural milestones while she strikes literal blows for the downtrodden. This lightweight entertainment will most likely to appeal to fans of comic book heroines." --Publishers Weekly

"Raymond Benson does a wonderful job telling this tale with humor, suspense, love and just great characters in this outstanding book." --BestSellersWorld.com & MysteriesGalore

..."richly detailed, well-researched, and surprisingly believable. In particular, the Black Stiletto is completely human and takes on human gangsters and street thugs, not super-powered adversaries..." --BlogCritics

New York Times and USA Today best-selling author

The Black Stiletto returns to stalk the night

It's 1959, and Judy Cooper, the Black Stiletto, sets out to confront a dangerous gangster known as the heroin king of Harlem when the teenage daughter of her beloved martial arts instructor ends up a prisoner in an uptown narcotics den. The Stiletto has troubles of her own: a shady filmmaker is threatening to reveal her identity to the world; a close friend of her landlord and substitute father may be in cahoots with the Harlem criminals; she's fighting for racial equality; and she has fallen in love again—this time with an FBI agent who has standing orders to arrest her. Meanwhile the Stiletto's son faces his own blackmail crisis when he finds out that there is a second copy of an 8 mm film he found in his mother's strongbox—showing the Black Stiletto unmasked in a film studio dressing room. As he tries to stop the filmmaker's son's extortion plot, he learns that his daughter, Gina, has been brutally assaulted in New York City. The past and the present meet as two shattering climaxes converge.