A reporter for the Baltimore Herald, Darryl Billups never wanted to be a hero. Hes just a hardworking black journalist whos been passed up and looked down upon because he wont kiss butt and always speaks his mind. That doesnt change the fact that hes one of the best damn newspapermen on the East Coast and his editors know it. And soon the whole city will too.

A lot of people are going to get hurt. . .Im not playing games...I thought you might want to do something about it.

At first hew ignores the voice mail message warning him about an impending wave of white supremacist violence--just another crackpot with nothing better to do with his time than make crank phone calls. After all, Darryl has his own problems: a boss whos itching to fire him, a hot new lady love, Yolanda , who just moved in...along with her little boy, Jamal. But when bombs start to go off all over town and a noted liberal philanthropist is slain, Billups quickly becomes a believer.

The populace is in a panic. And the police dont have a clue. The devil has come to Baltimore spouting neo-Nazi garbage, and hes challenging a solitary black journalist to hunt him down.

Warned that the headquarters of the NAACP is the next target, Darryl is off and running--chasing a deadly urban nightmare to its rotting poisonous core.

But now, suddenly, the stakes are getting higher, deadlier and more personal, rocking Darryls world in ways he never imagined possible. And with a city and his new family under siege, Darryl Billups is after justice. . .as well as the story of a lifetime. But it could cost him his life to get it.

Surprising, gritty, authentic and electrifying, UP JUMPED THE DEVIL heralds the arrival of a major new voice in suspense fiction. Blair S. Walker--and Darryl Billups--are here to stay.