The Bolita Grift
About
Miami, 1909. In a city built on debts and deception, Jerome “Redbone” Blake collects debts with his fists in Colored Town—until a desperate gambler trades his daughter to settle his losses. But Althea Hayes is nobody’s property. Her keen mind sees angles Jerome missed and together they cook up the boldest con Miami has ever seen: they forge a letter from Tampa’s crime boss, a gamble that vaults them from small-time hustlers to major players in Miami’s bolita numbers racket.
At first, the lie is a doorway—money, respect, a chance at dignity. But power draws predators: a crooked cop selling protection and Tampa enforcers who don’t forgive stolen territory. As their fortune climbs, so do betrayals and the price of survival.
When the real Tampa discovers their con, the bill comes due. The cop wants his cut. Tampa wants blood. In the flames of a Biscayne Bay warehouse, Jerome faces an impossible choice: the fortune they’ve built or the woman who taught him how to gamble with his soul. Two grifters bet their lives on each other. Discover what it costs to rig a game that was never meant for them to win.
The Bolita Grift delivers the atmospheric noir of Walter Mosley’s Devil in a Blue Dress with the historical sweep of Dennis Lehane’s The Given Day—a searing portrait of survival, betrayal, and unexpected grace in Jim Crow Florida.