Black Heat (A Nina Halligan mystery) - Hardcover

Civil rights leader Malik Martin was regarded as the middle ground between Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X. His organization, the Nation, was about to launch its new program of financial empowerment when he was assassinated. His wife, former movie sex goddess Victoria Thorn, was at his side when he was killed. She suffered a breakdown and was hospitalized for more than twenty years. Now released, she is trying to find her lost daughter. Her lawyer hires Nina Halligan for the job.
Halligan, a former prosecutor whose family was massacred by the minions of a drug lord she put in prison, is a private investigator. As she starts digging into this case, she stumbles onto a group of black nationalists called the New Nation, who are reclaiming African art and repatriating it to the Motherland. In addition, a conservative black evangelist, who is setting up church franchises derisively called "McChurches," kidnaps Nina to find out what she knows. She's also butting heads with the NYPD, which may have been involved in the death of Malik Martin. After two failed attempts on her life, and several dead bodies, Nina knows this is more than just a missing-persons case.