Brimming with twists, turns and non-stop drama, Nesly Clerge’s When The Dragon Roars is an ideal thriller for any black prison fan.
When The Dragon Roars opens with the protagonist, Frederick Stark, aka The Dragon, at the lowest point of his life. Having been betrayed by his ex-wife Kayla, a life full of opportunity is now extremely limited. He is in jail, serving a long sentence for putting the man who cuckolded him into a coma. But Starks is not one to let life get him down so easily: using the insight he had gained as CEO, he boldly, yet subtly, begins an attempt to rise through the prison hierarchy. But things start to turn ugly when the prison COs suspect him as part of the two inmate killers, in which he had a heavy hand in the execution.
On the outside, he seeks out his private investigator Michael Parker to manage his finances, and that need for a link to the real world becomes even greater as suspicions grow about his deadly activities behind bars. A medical scare only increases his desire to rise to the top and get his affairs in order. But he also seems to make it bolder, as he is able to stab some of the nastier prison gangsters with a poisoned leg, as an act of retaliation for killing a fellow prisoner.
With the help of his cellmate Jackson, Starks begins recruiting his own gang members: Pete, Tommy, Stinky, and Tank. But the hostility of the gangs escalates rapidly, and after a fight, Starks is sent to the SHU, where he has time to contemplate: how he got to prison in the first place, the women in his life, the plans for him. the future. Also, while in the SHU, Stark realizes that his situation becomes more precarious as he loses the protection of the guards. To gain further advantage, he and his team turn to the prison black market and start trading cell phones.
A few days later, Starks meets the elderly Gabe Bianchi, who has also lost wealth, family, and professional reputation. He has a crush on Bianchi, but Bianchi is bad news: the former boss of an infamous crime family with a reputation for cruelty. He is a dangerous friend to make, but one who could also come in handy.
Meanwhile, Starks’ nineteen-year-old new inmate, Kane, is under his wing and asks him to be his new cellmate. But Kane may not be quite who he seems.
All this time, Starks’ health has only been deteriorating. He goes to the hospital and discovers that he has a dangerously low hemoglobin level and is severely anemic. In the process of finding a donor, he discovers that his oldest child, Blake, is not his biological child. It seems the blows keep coming from his ex-wife Kayla.
From there, gang fights and family secrets emerge from every corner, keeping Starks on his toes and the reader turning pages.
While a bit trite and predictable at times, When The Dragon Roars will prove to be an enjoyable read for devoted fans of the genre.