Scott's Take: Truth To Power: A Luke Cage Crime Novel by S. A. Cosby

Truth To Power: A Luke Cage Crime Novel by S. A. Cosby is the third book in the Marvel Crime series. Each one is primarily written as a standalone read that is loosely connected to the other books.

 

In this one, Luke Cage takes a case investigating thugs getting armed with cutting edge cybernetic enhancements. He asks his cousin in Virginia to poke around at one of the manufacturing plants since his cousin happens to work there as a security guard. Of course, this leads to his cousin getting killed as the evil corporation runs the town and the local law enforcement. So, Luke Cage is off to Virginia to figure out who killed his cousin and stop what is happening.

 

So, Luke Cage basically is Reacher for the whole novel. Cosby sticks to his usual script in the action packed read that that deals with racism, small town politics, and corruption. There was one scene where Luke Cage was in danger and the only option was for the author to have the bad guys too stupid to finish him off right there.

 

Matt Murdock and Jessica Jones guest star in this book, but only exist to provide important contextual information over the phone. There is a running secondary plot point with Jessica Jones that got annoying after a while because Luke Cage is written as super smart while being kind of oblivious at the same time. She wants to have an important conversation and every single time they are about to do so, the call gets interrupted. I am not a fan of the trope of two characters need to have a conversation, but keep getting interrupted. In this case, it gets to the level of being absurd and could be used in a drinking game.

 

There is also an epilogue that is a vague teaser for the future book.  This book does not require one to have read any of the previous books in the series.

 

I enjoyed it, but the fact that I have read several of Cosby’s book in the past made the read far more predictable than I would like. If one has read other works by Cosby, than one will notice that the only actual difference here is the superhero aspect of things.  this is not very different than any of his others. It is not very original, but it is fun. I hope the author gets to do another in the Luke Cage universe, but I also hope he does some things a bit differently.

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4jzG7ze

 

 

My dad got the digital ARC came from the publisher, Hyperion Avenue, through NetGalley, so I got to read it on his kindle after he read and reviewed it last month.

 

Scott A. Tipple ©2026