Parkie

**Fans of Requiem for a Dream and Breaking Bad won't be able to escape the grips of this spellbinding debut novel . . . ". . . a gritty odyssey populated with seductive villains and formidable anti-heroes, the likes of which we’ve never encountered. . ." —Edwin Torres, author of Carlito’s Way, After Hours, and Q&A** Stanley and Ernie are best friends who couldn’t be more unalike. Virtually parentless and completely on his own, Stanley is wily, charming, and street-smart to a fault. Ernie, who comes from a conservative Harlem household, is subdued, yet physically intimidating on a mythical level. The common denominator holding their friendship together besides skateboarding? Selling drugs to the affluent scions of Manhattan’s Upper East Side at the Central Park Bandshell. A fabled urban playground for outcasts, it draws the elite but sheltered prep school teens to its alluring orbit every day after school. There is something altogether magnetic about the bohemian yet cunning young dealers, and soon enough, Stanley and Ernie’s lives become entangled with those of their wealthy customers. As Stanley and Ernie come of age, they claim Bandshell as their turf and transform it into their own personal fiefdom, evolving into a force to be reckoned with. But as their influence grows, the pair must decide which lines to cross—or not. While Ernie forges one path, Stanley discovers tarot and the Aleister Crowley system of Magick. He becomes obsessed with the dark side of mysticism, and withdraws from all vestiges of morality, leaving him with an unquenchable thirst for ascendancy over others. Meanwhile, the 1980s unfold while Stanley and Ernie carry on as formidable players—until ill-fated events ensue and everything reaches a breaking point. Can the friendship survive Stanley’s megalomania and penchant for the occult, or will the two turn on one another?