Renay Jackson’s previous books in this series introduced the curious character of Sweetpea, who’s not exactly what he seems. By day he’s Horace Boudreaux, mortgage broker and sometime playboy who likes nothing better than getting down with his girlfriend Harriette. Other times, he’s one of Oaktown’s more successful hitmen. He doesn’t kill only for pleasure, though he’s sadistic enough to smile while doing it; in Sweetpea’s Secret he kills for revenge. Oaktown’s notorious gangster Big Ed Tatum is one of his clients and so normally immune from Sweetpea’s wrath. But Big Ed crosses the line when he courts Sweetpea’s older sister Crystal, and worse, his henchman almost kills Sweetpea’s little sister Peanut. The hitman is happy to slash Big Ed’s throat in a Vegas parking lot. But the dead don’t always stay dead, as Sweetpea learns. Back on Oaktown’s mean streets, more adventures await as he takes on a trio of ruthlessly amoral, baby-faced thugs working the City Center. Renay Jackson’s raw style, streetwise characters, and uncensored images of “living just enough for the city” make Sweetpea’s Secret a memorable addition to the growing canon of important urban lit.