Book Review: "Dutch II" by Teri Woods

 Dutch II: Angel's Revenge by Teri Woods

Reviewed by A. Jarrell Hayes

Throughout history, charismatic, powerful, and ruthless men have built empires only to have them crumble after being disposed. In-fighting between lieutenants and successors, and opportunistic rivals are the usual suspects for the downfall. It happened to empires built by Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan. In Teri Woods’ novel Dutch II: Angel’s Revenge, it happens to Dutch’s street empire.

The book opens with the aftermath of a bloody courtroom shootout between Dutch and his team against the law. The body count starts out high, and the law wants the world to believe Dutch is a member of the fallen. This only escalates the turf war in Newark, NJ, as dealers – major and minor – want control of the streets that were once firmly held in Dutch’s grasp.

Angel and One-eyed Roc, two of Dutch’s generals, are released from prison after serving three years each on life-sentences. When they get out, the streets of Newark are in the power of Roll, a rival drug lord who had snatched control from Dutch’s successor Young World. Angel and One-eyed Roc both plan to rid the streets of Roll, but for different reasons.

Angel plans to wrestle back control of the streets for herself and for Dutch, whom she believes is still alive. As the book’s subtitle implies, Angel is pissed and starts knocking off anyone that had done Dutch wrong, including former friends and rivals.

In prison, One-eyed Roc grew closer to the Islamic faith and changed his mission: he now wants to rid the streets of drugs and depredation. He stopped being One-eyed Roc and became Rahman, militant Muslim using violence and intimidation to push hustlers and pimps off the streets. Eventually, Angel and Rahman find themselves on opposite ends of the battleground.

Unfortunately, the confrontation between Angel and Rahman doesn’t live up to the anticipation built from the constant foreshadowing. The bloody mayhem and body count leading up to the ending confrontation is what makes this book extremely entertaining. There are club massacres, C4 explosions; enough gangland violence to make any police commissioner or district attorney cringe at the murder rate. This is what happens when emperors fall: his subjects scramble to pick up the crumbs.

Dutch barely appears in the book, yet his presence permeates through the pages. His mother has conflicting emotions; she misses her son, not the monster he grew into. His ex-lover Nina struggles with his memory as hints of her past with Dutch begin to cloud her current relationship. The streets look to Dutch’s profile for guidance, and hands reach to grab his gaudy dragon piece, which symbolizes control of the streets.

Woods does an excellent job of keeping the action moving forward with riveting and creative descriptions. There are a couple of heartwarming scenes between Rahman and his family. Woods smoothly injects strong emotional sequences into this world where heartlessness is valued.

There are some passages and sentences where the syntax makes the reading confusing and unclear. Sometimes Woods’ transitions between scenes and points of view are clunky and don’t flow. The overall ending is a letdown featuring coincidences masquerading as surprise twists.


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