Thomas Peele’s book: Unsettling look at how the ‘Bey cult’ survived and thrived in Oakland

Investigative reporter Thomas Peele’s book on the former Your Black Muslim Bakery and the murder of journalist Chauncey Bailey is set for release Feb. 7 from Crown and it gets a nice toot from Publisher’s Weekly. From the blurb for Killing the Messenger: A Story of Radical Faith, Racism’s Backlash, and the Assassination of a Journalist:

[It’s an] "eye-opening narrative about radical religion and its consequences. Peele renders characters and scenes with rich detail and his chronicle of events surrounding Bailey's death unfolds with the seamlessness of a fictional thriller, would that were the case."

Add: Peele tells fellow Bay Area News Group reporter Josh Richman that besides examining the belief system of convicted murderer Yusuf Bey IV and others associated with the Bakery, “I also wanted to explore conditions in Oakland that allowed the Bey cult to survive and rise to political prominence for more than three decades, even after the horrors of Yusuf Bey were well exposed.”