title: The Long Mile: The Shango Mysteries
author:  Clyde W. Ford 
description: Desperation and hope fuel Ford's angry narrative concerning a wrongly convicted black detective, but no amount of action and bloodshed can make up for an overly familiar plot. After serving two years of a sentence for a murder he didn't commit, former NYPD detective John Shannon is let loose on appeal only to find that his 14-year-old son has been kidnapped. What happens next is thoroughly predictable, including plenty of gunplay and some dubious prison philosophy courtesy of Shannon's cellmate Charles Promise. The reader waits in vain for some innovation, some new twist we haven't encountered before amid the unrelievedly downbeat depiction of the underworld and its denizens. Alas, we've walked this long mile too many times before. Ford is also the author of the well-received study <i>The Hero with an African Face: Mythic Wisdom of Traditional Africa</i>. <br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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  ##### www.blackmask.com
  
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  On the Trail of Pontiac
  
  
  PREFACE
  
  CHAPTER I. A GLIMPSE AT THE PAST
  
  CHAPTER II. THE CABIN IN THE CLEARING
  
  CHAPTER III. BARRINGFORD'S STRANGE DISCOVERY
  
  CHAPTER IV. SEARCHING FOR CLEWS
  
  CHAPTER V. A LIVELY ELK HUNT
  
  CHAPTER VI. SURRENDER OF FORT DETROIT
  
  CHAPTER VII. PREPARING FOR THE EXPEDITION WESTWARD
  
  
  CHAPTER VIII. ON THE OLD BRADDOCK ROAD
  
  CHAPTER IX. HENRY'S STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE
  
  CHAPTER X. A WAIT IN CAMP
  
  CHAPTER XI. HAPPENINGS OF A STORMY NIGHT
  
  CHAPTER XII. THE RUINS OF THE OLD TRADING-POST
  
  CHAPTER XIII. BUILDING THE NEW TRADING-POST
  
  CHAPTER XIV. JEAN BEVOIR HAS HIS SAY
  
  [CHAPTER XV. DAVE'S UNWELCOME
  VISITOR](On%20the%20Trail%20of%20Pontiac_split_001.html#filepos177732)
  
  [CHAPTER XVI. DAVE MEETS
  PONTIAC](On%20the%20Trail%20of%20Pontiac_split_001.html#filepos189817)
  
  [CHAPTER XVII. THE ATTACK ON THE PACK-
  TRAIN](On%20the%20Trail%20of%20Pontiac_split_001.html#filepos201040)
  
  [CHAPTER XVIII. AFTER THE
  ENCOUNTER](On%20th