BLACK HEAT is Norman Kelley's novelistic exploration of the turbulent legacy of the 1960s black liberation movement-its continuance in a watered-down post-nationalist Afrocentrism, its perversion in the media-driven, get-rich schemes of the black bourgeoisie. Caught in the crossfire is the intrepid and resourceful Nina Halligan-formerly a Brooklyn assistant district attorney, now a private investigator-who searches for the missing daughter of a slain civil-rights leader while grappling with her own rage concerning the murder of her family. "Kelley pushes a heavy thumb on hot-button issues of black politics: Afrocentrism; the appeal of televangelism; what it means to be authentically black; FBI dirty tricks against civil-rights leaders"-Publishers Weekly.