Set in Chicago the novel follows the ripple effects of a tragic shooting throughout the community, focusing especially the teachers, police officers and students. With a cinematic sense of place and scene along with a wide cast of richly-drawn characters, this novel provides equal parts heartbreak, suspense, and action.
HARD TIMES
by Jeff Boyd
Flatiron/SMPG, March 2026
Buddy Mack has been caught in the middle of two worlds at war. As an English teacher at a South Side Chicago high school lauded for their football team but at risk in every other way, he tries to instill a love of literature, and is especially concerned with a trio of boys who test him to no end but are full of promise and heart. There’s Zeke, the football star; Truth, the sweet-talking charmer; and Dontell, Buddy’s most promising student.
At home, his wife, Chrissy, a successful corporate lawyer, is ready to upgrade to a big house on the North Side and start a family. He’s torn over all the implications. And the closest person he has in his life to talk to about the pressure he’s feeling is Chrissy’s little brother, Curtis, a corrupt Chicago cop.
The push-and-pull of the two worlds collide in a shocking moment that requires Buddy to choose a side and fight for all that he holds dear. HARD TIMES takes stock of what it means to be there for your people whether you want to or not and unflinchingly confronts the American dream—a moving, engrossing, and necessary read.
Like S.A. Cosby, Jeff Boyd has written a crime novel that sits on a shelf with literary fiction and digs deep into the social aspect of crime. This book explores rich and complicated family dynamics, the vulnerability of the students, and the tension between a community and law enforcement. And it all comes together in a really extraordinary, page-turning read.
Jeff Boyd is the author of The Weight (Simon & Schuster, 2023). A former public school teacher from Chicago, he is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He is currently a Visiting Instructor of Creative Writing at Pratt Institute and lives in Brooklyn with his partner and child.
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