A New York Times Notable Book

On Devil’s Night, the night before Halloween, some citizens of Detroit try to burn down their neighborhoods for an international audience of fire buffs. This gripping and often heartbreaking tour of the “Murder Capital of America” often seems lit by those same fires. But as a native Detroiter, Ze’ev Chafets also shows us the city beneath the crime statistics—its ecstatic storefront churches; its fearful and embittered white suburbs; its cops and criminals; and the new breed of black officials who are determined to keep Detroit running in the midst of appalling dangers and indifference. "Provocative . . . anyone . . . who wants to fathom the social calamity that is recent Detroit history, and what that may portend for other cities, will have to come to this book." —The Washington Post

"Mr. Chafets captures the feel of the city: his vignettes are as entertaining as the little grace notes of a fine gospel song. . . . And he captures the sense of a bellwether black community in charge, on the edge of change, trying to reconstruct a city on the ropes." —The New York Times Book Review