''Eldorado Red'' is a 1974 crime novel by

Donald Goines Donald Goines (pseudonym: Al C. Clark; December 15, 1936 – October 21, 1974) was an African-American writer of urban fiction. His novels were deeply influenced by the work of Iceberg Slim. Early life and family Goines was born in Detroit, Mich ...

that tells the story of a numbers runner in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

who goes by the name Eldorado Red (due to the color and make of his car).

Plot

ElDorado Red has a son named Buddy and trusts him in cleaning up the collection houses. Though Eldorado Red has been a supportive father and has paid adequate

child support Child support (or child maintenance) is an ongoing, periodic payment made by a parent for the financial benefit of a child (or parent, caregiver, guardian) following the end of a marriage or other similar relationship. Child maintenance is paid d ...

, Buddy's mother, who left Eldorado Red for a

pimp Procuring or pandering is the facilitation or provision of a prostitute or other sex worker in the arrangement of a sex act with a customer. A procurer, colloquially called a pimp (if male) or a madam (if female, though the term pimp has still ...

, tells Buddy that all five of her children have been fathered by Eldorado Red and that he refuses to support any of them. With revenge in mind, Buddy, with the assistance of three friends (Tubby, Samson and Danny) robs two of the collection spots. Eldorado Red orders two hit men (Tank and Copper-Head) to investigate and ‘take care of’ the thieves. When Eldorado Red learns one of the thieves was his own son, he tells the two hit men to let him go after having killed the rest, but it is too late because Samson has already shot and killed Buddy. The hit men are picked up by police in Buddy's powder blue

Cadillac The Cadillac Motor Car Division () is a division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM) that designs and builds luxury vehicles. Its major markets are the United States, Canada, and China. Cadillac models are distributed i ...

, though Tank gets off after having Eldorado Red take care of a

drug dealer A drug is any chemical substance A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by ...

named Reno who was the only witness that could tie Tank to the killings.

References

1974 American novels Novels by Donald Goines {{1970s-crime-novel-stub