Amazon, A Best Book of the Month
Los Angeles Daily News, A Most Anticipated Summer Read
Daily Kos, A Notable New Book
“Looking for a reads-like-a-novel-but-isn’t true crime book that you’ll be thinking about long after you turn the final page? Then you can’t go wrong with Reap the Whirlwind. Author Peter Houlahan (Norco ’80) scrupulously avoids taking sides as he describes a textbook police stop in ‘80s San Diego that ended up with 2 cops dead and a civilian ride-along badly injured. Deftly tracing the event through the court case that followed and beyond, Houlahan delivers an unnervingly topical look at a tragic confluence of racial profiling, (un)conscious bias, and mental health issues.” —Vannessa Cronin, Amazon Book Review
“[An] engrossing work of reportage.”—Michael Giltz, Parade
“A gripping true-crime narrative set against the evocative backdrop of Southern California.” —C. Christopher Smith, The Englewood Review of Books
“In meticulous yet utterly spellbinding detail, Houlahan lays out all aspects of the case, from the backstories of the principal figures to the tragic shootings that evening and in particular, the intriguing courtroom battle between prosecution and defense.” —Booklist (starred review)
“In a colorful narrative populated with well-drawn characters, Houlahan explains how the case laid bare the city’s long-simmering tensions over policing and how the verdict served to turn down the heat, opening meaningful dialogue between police and the Black community. The result is a propulsive legal thriller with deep insight into Southern California policing history.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“[A] fast-paced narrative . . . An assumption-shaking true-crime narrative that transports readers onto the street and into the courtroom.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Reap the Whirlwind’s novelistic narrative style delivers emotional weight as Houlahan plots out the cataclysmic event and its aftermath, from skewed news reporting to the inner workings of the judicial system to the messy interpersonal drama that followed Penn, whose psyche suffered devastating consequences. When the story develops into a full-fledged courtroom drama, Houlahan remains an impartial, careful observer. A topical, piercing story about how perspectives on law enforcement and innocence shift depending on who you are, Reap the Whirlwind shows how police brutality and racial profiling impact Black victims far beyond the actual incident—even when they make it out alive.” —Natalia Berry, BookPage
“Houlahan’s documentary-esque book reads like a thriller and offers a panoramic view of the original altercation and everything that occurred as a result . . . We readers come away from the book with a strong sense of time and place in the San Diego of the mid-to-late 1980s, we feel we know Sagon Penn and Donovan Jacobs and many other people who were or became integral to the drama, we get the racial divides existent in the city at the time, we react to the many stunning twists and turns that came out of the two extensive trials. And Houlahan is balanced in how he presents the story, not taking sides but rather telling all that he learned from a wide variety of angles and via many opposing perspectives and allowing us to draw our own conclusions as to who were the real victims and villains in the tragedy. Reap the Whirlwind is a deeply satisfying read that is the true crime version of a courtroom thriller novel.” —Brian Greene, Retreats from Oblivion
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