Blacktop Wasteland

by S. A. Cosby

IT'S A CRIME THAT HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF.

'Sensationally good - new, fresh, real, authentic, twisty, with characters and dilemmas that will break your heart. ' LEE CHILD

'Every once in a while a writer comes along with an incredible voice. Think Elmore Leonard, or Chester Himes...add S. A. Cosby to that list." STEVE CAVANAGH

Beauregard "Bug" Montage: honest mechanic, loving husband, devoted parent. He's no longer the criminal he once was - the sharpest wheelman on the east coast, infamous from the hills of North Carolina to the beaches of Florida.

But when his respectable life begins to crumble, a shady associate comes calling with a clean, one-time job: a diamond heist promising a get-rich payout. Inexorably drawn to the driver's seat - and haunted by the ghost of his outlaw father - Bug is yanked back into a savage world of bullets and betrayal, which soon endangers all he holds dear...

Like Breaking Bad in a high-speed collision with Drive, this stunning debut holds up a cracked mirror to the woozy ideals of the American dream - a dazzling, operatic story of a man pushed to his limits by poverty, race and a scarred, self-destructive masculinity.

'Blacktop Wasteland is an urgent, timely, pitch-perfect jolt of American noir.' DENNIS LEHANE

'...S. A. Cosby reinvents the American crime novel. Blacktop Wasteland thrums and races - it's an intoxicating thrill of a ride'. WALTER MOSLEY

The perfect page-turning read for fans of acclaimed writers such as Don Winslow, Attica Locke, Bill Beverley and Thomas Mullen.

(P)2020 Macmillan Audio

• ISBN10: 1250252687
• ISBN13: 9781250252685
• Publish Date: 14 July 2020
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Flatiron Books
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 304
• Language: English

Reviews

[Quirky Cat]

It's time to read more from S.A. Cosby, Blacktop Wasteland. However, I'm a bit surprised that BOTM picked up a slightly older (read: 2020) book for one of March's additions. Oh well, I can't complain since I snatched it up so quickly!

Beauregard "Bug" Montage used to be famous for his getaway driving – though perhaps infamous is a better term. However, Bug is retired now...though we all know that life tends to have a different opinion when it comes to retirement.

Finances force Bug to admit the hard truth – that he's going to have to head back to the life he thought he walked away from. This one last job should have put things right. Instead, it's about to make his life a lot more complicated.

“The truth had a strange way of ending an argument.”

If there's one thing I've learned, it's that S.A. Crosby knows how to write a captivating story. Something about this book just sinks readers in and refuses to let go. Personally? I think it's the human (and emotional) element of it all.

We've all seen a tale similar to Blacktop Wasteland: a man has a dark past and is now trying to get clean. Only, for one reason or another (usually financial), he's getting pulled back into the game. By going back for one more job, he puts his entire life and future at risk.

Despite the core element of Blacktop Wasteland feeling very familiar, it is full of surprises and depth. From now on, this book will stand out to me when I think of this trope (is it common enough to be called a trope? I'm assuming yes).

Read more reviews over at Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks