Trae Macklin Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Trae Macklin is the pseudonym of Wahid Clark, the author that is best known for her “Thug” series of novels. The name came to life while he was writing the aforementioned series and she decided to write a story about the character. The author began writing her series while she was serving time at a federal prison camp and has since then written several short stories and more than a dozen novels. After writing the successful “Thug” and “Payback” series she has also had considerable success with “Flippin the Hustle” written as Trae Macklin. Other novels she has written as Trae include “The Game of GWOP” and “The Letter.”

Trae believes that what sets her novels apart from others in the genre is that she never bothers with what other authors are doing or engaging in some kind of competition. Another thing that makes the novels fire is that they are largely based on her life. As such, many people that know her from her life in Philadelphia, New York, and Jersey know that she was a high-level thug for quite some time and was lucky to make good money before she retired. Macklin wrote “Flippin the Hustle” shortly after leaving the streets and hence many aspects of how the game is played were still very fresh in her mind. Those raw experiences and memories are what made the novel “Flippin the Hustle” so realistic. About five or six years after selling her last brick of dope, she started penning the manuscript for the novel. However, she also asserts that she gives a different side of the game that many of her contemporaries usually do not bother with. In the novel, you get the perspective of Federal agent Derrick as a lawman but also his mindset and insights as a hustler and law enforcement officer. The beauty of the novel is that we get to see how one person that may be deemed an insider could turn against his coworkers while working in some of the most powerful law enforcement organizations. He is motivated not only by money but also because he needs the cash to save his mother’s life. As such, “Flippin The Hustle” goes into how people can get caught up in the hustle in the name of love and then find themselves lost in the pursuit of material things.

Trae Macklin got the inspiration for “Flippin The Hustle” when she was taking a lot of trips out of town working and reflecting on all that she had watched and experienced in the streets. That included everything from the shootouts with assassins and the sex with dimes. Much of what she wrote was not a conscious decision as it was a natural organic flow of material that she had experienced having lived in the streets for so long. In fact, many people who know her have said that there are tons of similarities between what is in the novel and what happened in real life. Once she sat down to write, everything just flowed and the scenes and characters came from what she remembered. From that, she came up with the character of a federal agent that was being treated unfairly by the agency. During these hard times, his mother fell ill and he desperately needed money for her treatment and medication. As such, it was a matter of showing the different ways he could make the money he needed and the challenges he would have to overcome. Once he had the foundational plot, he got in the zone by going back to some of the places he had frequented. Macklin would park her car on strips where she had almost been killed and where she had seen murders go down. She would then pull out her laptop and start writing. It was an emotional way to write as she had access to the real gritty street experiences. In between moving between these places and several revisions, she took six months to write “Flippin The Hustle.”

“Flippin The Hustle” by Trae Macklin is the story of Derick Richards. He is a federal agent that was born and raised in the Richmond, Virginia Projects. His life had been changed when he saw his older brother who was also something of a father figure to him get killed by an upcoming drug dealer. He decided that the best way to honor his brother’s memory was to get into the Federal Bureau of Investigations. When he graduated from the Academy, he became one of the best at bringing down dealers and drug crews that he had a passionate hatred for. He had a special skill at fitting in with street thugs and his exceptional talent was soon recognized by his bosses that sent him to New York City. He was to infiltrate one of the deadliest and largest criminal organizations ever. But when Derick accepted the assignment to bring down the Black Tar Boyz criminal gang, neither the FBI nor he knew how far he would go and how closely he would wear his new undercover outfit. He is soon finding it hard to get out of his new persona since the mean streets of Brooklyn seem to have an unbreakable hold over him.