Anna doesn’t buy it, though, and after digging around on the Internet, she finds that a famous novelist died on one of the group’s trips.

But Martin goes anyway, assuring Anna he'll be fine. She thinks it’s dangerous and isn’t comfortable with his newfound buddies.

When Martin is invited to tag along for a weekend of whitewater rafting, his wife, Anna, begs him not to go. Those friends are rich and powerful African-American men with beautiful wives, prestige, lots of money, and a deep, dark secret that they share. Much to everyone’s surprise, Martin manages to snatch victory in court, instantly catapulting himself into the limelight and into a new and prestigious circle of friends, which includes Damon. Up-and-coming attorney Martin Grey is involved in the trial of his career, a racial discrimination case that pits the young lawyer against another black attorney, Damon Darrell, a Johnnie Cochran–type with a reputation for winning. Trapped inside a picture-perfect, make-believe world that is home to a frightening reality, Martin must find a way out that will allow him to stay alive without becoming the very thing he hates.Ī novel of rage and compassion, good and evil, trust and betrayal, Forty Acres is the thought-provoking story of one man’s desperate attempt to escape the clutches of a terrifying new moral order.Screenwriter Smith tackles the brutality of slavery in this debut novel. Martin finds out that his glittering new friends are part of a secret society dedicated to the preservation of the institution of slavery-but this time around, the black men are called “Master.” Joining them seems to guarantee a future without limits rebuking them almost certainly guarantees his death. But far from home and cut off from everyone he loves, he discovers a disturbing secret that challenges some of his deepest convictions… They invite him for a weekend away from it all-no wives, no cell phones, no talk of business. He’s dazzled by what they’ve accomplished, and they seem to think he has the potential to be as successful as they are. Martin Grey, a smart, talented black lawyer working out of a storefront in Queens, becomes friendly with a group of some of the most powerful, wealthy, and esteemed black men in America. Read the page-turning, provocative thriller that will forever change the way you think about slavery and its legacy in today’s America.

“A thriller in a class by itself - brilliant and scary!” - Terry McMillan

Forty acres by dwayne alexander smith