Tommy is accosted by a police officer, Inspector Malone, and a private detective, Mr. Howard; they claim that Suydam is under investigation.

Tommy returns home to find Malone and Howard at his apartment building; they had been hired to retrieve the missing page from Ma Att’s book.

The police officers begin shelling the tenements with machine guns as Black Tom slits Suydam’s throat.

[7] Slate called it "riveting", "clever", and "compelling", and noted LaValle's comparison of "cosmic indifference" to targeted racist malice and brutality.

[8] Vice described it as "tightly written, beautifully creepy, and politically resonant", and emphasized that despite its nature as a literary "rebuttal", it is still "a thrilling Lovecraftian tale of mystery, monsters, and madness".

[9] Nina Allan commended LaValle for "making (...) 'The Horror at Red Hook' (into) an actual story (...) featuring real characters with real motivations – a claim that can not safely be made for the original tale", but observed that — when compared to the vivid "lunacy" of Lovecraft's writing — LaValle's prose is "grounded and sound in both mind and body" and ultimately "pedestrian".

[11] In 2017, AMC announced that it was planning a TV adaptation of The Ballad of Black Tom, with LaValle as co-executive producer.