Thomas Peele

Killing the Messenger "is a page turner in the tradition of great true-crime novels such as Truman Capote's In Cold Blood." Peele "bravely takes on the complexities of racism and its backlash." - San Francisco Bay Guardian

"Killing the Messenger is a very well written and researched book. Like James A. Michener, Peele begins at the roots of his subjects.... Killing the Messenger may be the best, most thoroughly researched and ... most objective book thuse far written on (the history of the Black Muslim movement) and is, no doubt, destine to become required reading in many colleges and universities. Hopefully it will also be read in prisons to educate young Black men that tricknology comes in all colors" - Columbia Journalism Review

"A riveting opus recounting a bittersweet victory for the fourth estate over radical Islam in the name of freedom of the press." Kam Williams, syndicated film and book critic

Killing the Messenger is "an astonishing account" that can be compared to The Wire and its creator, David Simon. "More than a gripping true-crime story, "Killing the Messenger" is an indictment of a corrupt and cowardly civic culture that isn't unique to Oakland." - Cleveland Plain Dealer

Killing the Messenger is "a chilling narrative...an-impossible-to-put-down read. Peele's undying integrity no only uncovers enough hard-hitting facts to thoroughly close both the investigation and (Chauncey Bailey's) murder, but also restores out faith that justice can be restored." - Uptown Magazine

Killing The Messenger is "an urgent new book. It "will be a revelation to many readers, detailing 100 years of American history that simply isn't part of the American lexicon. Peele masterfully draws a line from the 'radical faith' that the scars of slavery and Jim Crow helped popularize to the bullets that turned Chauncey Bailey into a 'First Amendment martyr.'" - San Francisco Chronicle

"A riveting opus recounting a bittersweet victory for the fourth estate over radical Islam in the name of freedom of the press." Kam Williams, syndicated film and book critic

"Killing the Messenger is a crackling work of nonfiction, impossible to put down. Like Krakauer's Under the Banner of Heaven, Thomas Peele unpacks a tale of extremism and evil spawned by another peculiar American religion, The Nation of Islam. The malicious leader Yusuf Bey and his murderous followers and sons in the Your Black Muslim Bakery cult wreaked bloody havoc on the Bay Area for decades, until finally brought down by their brazen killing of a community journalist, Chauncey Bailey." - Nina Burleigh, New York Times bestselling author of The Fatal Gift of Beauty

"Tough, taut, and true! Killing the Messenger is a non-fiction noir trip through the dark side of religion, journalism, racial politics, and law enforcement. A REAL thriller." - Robert Lipsyte, author of An Accidental Sportswriter

"Peele exposes the sordid and homicidal history of the Nation of Islam and its offshoots. Yusef Bey, like David Koresh and Jim Jones before him, was the leader of a cult of personality. While most members of any cult are essentially good but misguided people, Peele shows how anyone, no matter how well-intentioned, will do almost anything - including kill - if he believes his leader is divine. Chauncey Bailey was, sadly, a victim of Bey's megalomania." --Karl Evanzz, author of The Judas Factor and The Messenger: The Rise and Fall of Elijah Muhammad.

"Thomas Peele is one of the great investigative reporters working today. His remarkable and obsessively researched book charts the trajectory of an Oakland crime family responsible for a string of murders. More important, perhaps, it exposes the willful myopia of the city officials and community leaders who allowed this outfit to operate over a span of decades." -A.C. Thompson, Investigative reporter, ProPublica and PBS Frontline