Book Review: "Love & Other Killers" by Brynne Weaver

“Everybody’s gotta have a hobby, even if it is hunting the most wretched pieces of shit on the planet in a blood sport competition, and I intend to maintain my run as champion of the Annual August Showdown.”

I haven’t read any of the books in Brynne Weaver’s Ruinous Love trilogy yet, but after reading this, I definitely need to! This was a fun, twisty, dark, and steamy story.

Sloane and her husband Rowan, along with his two brothers and her best friends, have an annual competition each August. But it’s not quite your usual competition. The six of them are all serial killers, and each year they challenge each other to hunt down a cold-blooded killer. Whoever makes the kill—the more brutal, the better—gets bragging rights.

This year’s target is Allan Munster. He’s a chicken farmer with a moonshine distillery on the side. He goes to church every Sunday. But he’s also a monstrous murderer who has covered up his actions. Or so he thinks.

So it’s women versus men to see who can take Munster down first. They’re lying in wait. But Sloane can’t help but wonder what the appearance of someone from their past earlier in the day means…

I thought this was great. The characters and their banter were fantastic. (One character called another “Budget Batman” a few times and it made me laugh.) There’s lots of steam, too. Suffice it to say, I’m heading for the Ruinous Love trilogy now!

Book Review: "The Black Orchid" by Loreth Anne White

This was my Amazon First Reads pick for August. One thing’s for sure: reading this definitely reinforced my determination never to go on a cruise! I mean, if you combine all of the things that have gone wrong with cruises recently along with the fictional mishaps, you’ll understand why I feel the way I do!

The Black Orchid, one of the most luxurious ships ever built, will embark on its maiden voyage through the Aegean Sea. A number of wealthy and notable people will have the opportunity to experience this luxury first-hand. But within three days, the ship will have sunk, and some of the passengers will die.

Retired FBI profiler Gideon Marsh is on the ship with his estranged daughter and her young son, who aspires to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps. He’ll be giving talks about his most notorious cases, partially highlighting the impending release of his new book. But his real reason for traveling on the ship may prove more dangerous than he imagined.

Famed war photojournalist Lilith McGregor has survived some harrowing circumstances. As she enters the twilight of her life, nothing may be as challenging as facing her stepson’s money-hungry fiancé, who wants her intended back in his father’s will. And her personal assistant, Poppy, hopes to ingratiate herself to Lilith as well in order to change the course of her life.

The ship runs into a once-in-a-lifetime storm, which threatens the safety of passengers and the ship itself. During the course of the book, we follow a documentary crew as they try to recreate the disaster that befell the Black Orchid.

There was a lot going on in the book, ostensibly to divert our attention from the misery on the ship. But too much time was spent on the documentary, which seemed to go on too long. There were some surprises and lots of stuff that I expected. I was entertained but felt like they could have tightened up the story a bit.

Book Review: "The Tuxedo Society" by Paul Rudnick

This was a fun romp of a book! Paul Rudnick definitely makes me laugh, and this book had some very funny (and some silly) moments. Thanks so much to Atria Books and NetGalley for the complimentary advance copy!

Andrew is an aspiring actor in NYC, but he seems to do more aspiring than acting. To make ends meet, he works at a candle store, where no matter the season, the Christmas candles are always popular. But he dreams of something more.

His friend Brock invites him to a fancy dinner with an exclusive group he belongs to called the Tuxedo Society. It’s not just a group of attractive, gossipy people, as they appear to be. It’s actually a super-secret group which helps protect American democracy. And all of the members are queer.

The group’s leader, Reggie, is a former Navy SEAL who was dishonorably discharged for being gay. He trains Andrew to be a full member of the group, complete with James Bond-esque gadgets (bombs that look like protein bars, a yoga mat that doubles as an assault rifle), as they try to figure out who is behind the theft of some important artifacts.

Their mission finds Andrew in spots around the world, impersonating clergy, Olympic athletes, and a florist’s assistant. They come into contact with corrupt, closeted politicians, foreign criminal masterminds, and an evil televangelist.

There are lots of great banter and fun action scenes in the book. But honestly, what I loved the most was the appearance of a character who used to “author” a column for PREMIERE magazine, whom I absolutely loved. This would be a great movie!!

The book publishes 5/26.

Book Review: "The Writer" by James Patterson and J.D. Barker

I’ve been on a real James Patterson kick lately and I’ve not been disappointed by anything of his I’ve read! His newest book, a collaboration with JD Barker, wowed me completely.

Declan Shaw, an NYPD detective, is summoned to an exclusive apartment building one night. A woman says she found her husband dead, their apartment broken into. She is in shock, covered in blood, but apparently unharmed.

The woman is Denise Morrow, a bestselling true crime writer. She’s explored some notorious cases, uncovering details and secrets long kept hidden. And she’s nearly done with her latest book, in which she accuses Declan of planting evidence in another case.

It looks like Denise might be guilty of murdering her husband and making it look like a home invasion. But she and her lawyer poke holes in the evidence the police have collected.

Every time the police think they have an ironclad case, something else arises. What really happened that night? And is Declan a corrupt cop who planted evidence, or is he being framed?

The twists came fast and furious in this book, and I could not put it down. I loved the way this unfolded and I wasn’t sure which characters to root for. This was a great collaboration!

Book Review: "And There He Kept Her" by Joshua Moehling

I’ve had this book on my list for a while and now I’m kicking myself for waiting so long to read it! This was an excellent start to the series, and I will definitely be diving back into books 2 and 3 soon.

After a personal tragedy, Ben takes a job as a sheriff’s deputy in Sandy Lake, Minnesota, where his family once had a summer cabin. Working and living in a small town is a little unsettling for Ben, as everyone has an opinion about his life, but he’s determined to do right by the town.

When two teenagers disappear late one night, Ben is determined to find them, especially given his connection to one of them. What is puzzling and disturbing is that both teens have left their phones behind, which either means they weren’t expecting to go missing or they didn’t want to be tracked. He’s not entirely surprised to learn that one of the teens was dealing drugs in his high school, but the more he investigates, the more tangled the web becomes.

Meanwhile, Emmett is an old man in failing health, but it doesn’t keep him from viciously defending his property. His house may be falling apart, but his basement has seen many horrors through the years, and he’s not sure if his latest captive is worth the trouble.

As Ben and his colleagues dig further into the disappearance of the teenagers, he’s reminded of an unsolved mystery in his own life. He also realizes that no matter how small the town is, there are lots of secrets hidden within it. Can they solve the mystery before more tragedy strikes?

I thought this was a terrific book. I was hooked on the story and loved the emotional depth that came along with it. Ben is such a fascinating, complex character, and I really hope the next two books in the series continue the exploration into his own issues and emotions.

Book Review: "The Recruiter" by Gregg Podolski

This was a great thriller! I can’t believe this was Gregg Podolski’s debut, but it certainly seems like the stage is set for this to become a series. And I’m all in.

“People who aren’t prone to making bad decisions often fail to foresee just how life-altering a truly bad one can be.”

Rick Carter is a recruiter. However, he’s not the guy you’d call to find a new marketing person or CTO. Rick recruits assassins, hackers, smugglers, and any other kind of skilled criminal his clients might need. He doesn’t share secrets and the cops never get involved—and he gets lots of referrals from clients.

But he has a bad feeling about the latest client to hire him, or force him to work for them. You see, while Rick isn’t the most upstanding of citizens, he never wants to be party to harming the good guys. And this client is more than a little, ummm, persuasive, in making him see things their way.

When Rick learns that the family he left behind 10 years ago is somehow in danger related to this new client, he has to come out of hiding to try and fix things. It won’t be easy, however, because not only does he not know whom to trust, but his family definitely doesn’t trust him. Can he convince them he’s capable of saving them, and, more importantly, can he save them?

The pacing of this book was great. The action kept coming but there were pauses, so it never was too much. Rick is so sarcastic, and that’s very close to how I am, so I enjoyed him and the ragtag band of “candidates” he worked with. This reads like a movie and it really entertained me.

Book Review: "Fatal Intrusion" by Jeffery Deaver and Isabella Maldonado

There was a time in the 1990s when I read thrillers and crime novels almost exclusively. Among the authors I read was Jeffery Deaver; I really enjoyed his Lincoln Rhyme series, but as the years passed, my interest shifted away from thrillers.

Fatal Intrusion is the start of a new series by Deaver and Isabella Maldonado. It follows Homeland Security agent Carmen Sanchez and quirky security expert and hacker Jake Heron, who tangled several years ago when she arrested him.

One day Carmen’s sister Selina is assaulted outside a coffee shop. The attack was planned; the suspect had approached her earlier in the day. Luckily, an innocent bystander broke up the attack and the suspect got away, but Selina was able to grab his cellphone.

Carmen turns to Jake to hack into the attacker’s phone to try and get information on him, since no DNA or fingerprints were identified. The only characteristic is a vivid tattoo of a black widow spider.

Carmen and Jake team up to find the Spider before he strikes again, but he always seems to get the jump on them. And the closer they get to capturing him, the more confusing the situation gets, so it’s difficult to determine who the real target is and why.

This was a compelling read, but I felt the pacing was really uneven. I learned more about spiders than I needed to, and there’s a lot of tech speak in the story as well. The concept behind the book, that those who are disillusioned can easily turn to crime via the web, is pretty creepy.

This was an Amazon First Reads selection. The book will publish 9/1.

Book Review: "The Last Party" by A.R. Torre

Wow. Just wow. I had been waiting for this book because everyone that had gotten ARCs of it was raving about it. All I can say is, again, wow.

“Breadcrumbs. Lay enough of them down on the ground, and even the stupidest of animals will find their way.”

Perla, her husband Grant, and their 11-year-old daughter Sophie live a comfortable life in Pasadena. Grant works too hard, but he loves his wife and daughter. While at times he’s not sure that he fully understands Perla, they’ve both overcome difficulties in their lives and have a strong relationship.

But while she plays her roles at home and in the community quite well, Perla has become obsessed with a convicted murderer and a crime he committed 23 years ago. Leewood Folcrum murdered two young girls at his daughter’s birthday party, but has never explained why.

The case has recently been the subject of a true crime podcast, and Perla isn’t the only person interested in it. A doctoral student and researcher is writing a paper on the crime, and hopes to get insights from Folcrum himself.

There’s so much more to this book that you need to read for yourself. I couldn’t get enough of it, and while this was my first book by A.R. Torre, I’m hooked and need to dig into her backlist!

Book Review: "I Was A Teenage Slasher" by Stephen Graham Jones

I’ve read two horror books in two months. Go me! TBH, I wasn’t thinking of reading this until I saw how much a Bookstagram friend raved about it. (I am powerless in the face of FOMO.)

“If I could unkill six people, not make the whole town of Lamesa, Texas gnash their teeth and tear their clothes and have to go to funeral after funeral that searing-hot July?”

It’s the summer of 1989 in a small Texas town. Tolly and Amber are best friends, getting ready for senior year of high school. Neither quite fits in, but they have each other to hang with.

On what seems like a normal night in Lamesa, Tolly and Amber go to a party where most of their classmates and former classmates will be. While Amber tries to fit in, Tolly makes a fool of himself, leading some of his classmates to teach him a near-fatal lesson. But it’s the events that follow which rock the town, and set Tolly on a revenge-killing path.

I love morally grey characters, where you can’t help but root for someone who does horrible things. The book is narrated by Tolly, as sort of a memoir or autobiography that he earmarks for Amber to explain it all. You can feel his regret as well as his unrequited feelings for her.

There’s definitely lots of gore and violence in this book, but lots of heart and humor as well. Jones has totally captured the spirit of 1989, and he is an amazing storyteller.

Book Review: "Of Sunlight and Stardust" by Riley Hart and Christina Lee

Tanner’s wife used to dream of them moving into an old house on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. They would restore the dilapidated barn; she would paint and he would make his own beer. But she died before he could buy the house, so he bought it anyway and planned to make the renovations they discussed. One year later, he’s still too consumed by grief to do anything.

Cole spent some time in prison for looking the other way while things went wrong at the garage where he worked. When he got out of jail, he was homeless and as a felon, had little chance of finding a job, so he traveled to the town of Red Bluff to try for a fresh start.

When Tanner meets Cole, he can see his pain and his need for someone to give him a chance. Tanner offers Cole a job to fix up the barn in exchange for a place to sleep. The barn was rumored to have been damaged years before in a fire allegedly set by the son of the previous owners before he apparently ran off with his best friend.

Under the barn floor, Cole finds an old journal which apparently belonged to Tom, the young man accused of setting the fire back in 1948. As Cole and Tanner read the journal, what they find is the story of a young man in love with his best friend Charlie, at a time when those feelings were enough to get you hurt or killed.

At first, Cole and Tanner bond over their shared loneliness and grief, but over time, they develop a strong friendship. And the more they read about Tom and Charlie’s story, the more they’re drawn to one another, until friendship turns to passion. When they discover the truth of what happened to the barn and the young men, they know they must seize their chance at happiness.

I thought this was such a beautiful story, full of emotion, romance, and steam. These characters—as well as Tom and Charlie’s story—really found a place in my heart and my mind.

Book Review: "Owning Up" by George Pelecanos

Ever since I read one of his first books in the early 1990s, George Pelecanos has been one of my absolute favorite crime writers. Although he has done well as a writer and executive producer of shows like The Wire, Treme, and The Deuce, he really should be more of a household name for his books.

He hasn’t published a book since 2018, so I was really excited to find his latest book during a bookstore visit this weekend. Even if this is more fiction with a dash of crime, it is so good to read his work again.

Owning Up is a collection of four novellas, each of which follows its main characters for a number of decades. In “The Amusement Machine,” two former inmates meet in a completely different environment since they’ve turned their lives around, at least until one finds money more tempting than freedom. In “The No-Knock,” a crime writer’s life is turned upside down when federal agents ransack his house, looking for evidence that his eldest son committed a crime.

Family history, as well as the history of some major acts of violence and disaster in Washington DC, are at the core of “Knickerbocker,” when a woman leading her grandmother through reminiscences brings her into a whole different world. And in the title novella, a young Greek man comes of age during two hostage crises in Washington, and he learns a valuable lesson from a coworker.

While I missed the whipsmart intensity of Pelecanos' crime novels, these novellas reminded me how well he creates characters that reside somewhere in the grey space between good and bad. There are familiar themes in this book, of family and heritage, over the struggle to do the right thing, and issues of racism and racial inequity. I’ve always loved the research he does for his books, and it’s gotten to the point where I’ve been here long enough to remember many of the places he writes about!!

Book Review: "Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone" by Benjamin Stevenson

This book is a quirky, fun story of family dynamics and dysfunction, and murder.

“Everyone in my family has killed someone. Some of us, the high achievers, have killed more than once.”

Despite the fact that he’s been estranged from his family for a few years, when Ernie gets an invitation to a family reunion, he decides to go. The main purpose of the reunion is to welcome his brother home after a three-year prison stint for murder. A murder Ernie turned him in for.

The reunion is being held at a remote ski resort. The day after his family arrives, a man is found dead on the slopes. Most people, including the detective, think the man died of exposure to the cold, but Ernie’s stepsister discovers that he has inhaled a great deal of ash. Was he burned to death and then left to freeze?

A huge fan of crime fiction, Ernie takes it upon himself to help the overwhelmed detective solve the murder. The only question he has is, which of his family members has killed again? And why?

This was a fun and suspenseful twist on the locked-room mysteries that are so popular now. The plot gets a little convoluted at times but I definitely needed to see where the story would go.

Book Review: "Ms. Demeanor" by Elinor Lipman

Elinor Lipman's new book is an absolutely charming story about a woman’s efforts to repair her life after it falls apart.

Jane is a hardworking lawyer, highly respected in her firm. One night, running into a younger colleague leads to a night of drinking, flirting, and late-night sex on the rooftop deck of her NYC apartment building. Of course, it just so happens that a neighbor from the building across the street is looking at the roof with her binoculars—and she calls the police.

While she and her colleague get arrested, Jane is made an example of, and is sentenced to six months of house arrest, gets fired from her job, and has her law license suspended. What should she do now? Her twin sister tries to come up with ideas to keep Jane busy and keep from being bitter.

When the doorman of her building lets slip that there’s another tenant on house arrest, Jane strikes up a friendship with Perry, a white-collar criminal and former art handler. The two of them commiserate over their punishment and the way so many in their lives have abandoned them.

And then the police come knocking on Jane’s door again. Before she knows it she’s entangled in the lives of minor Polish royalty and another one of her neighbors…and is there a chance at romance?

I really loved this. It was funny, thought-provoking, emotional, and romantic. A real surprise just how much I loved the banter, the family dysfunction, all of it.

Book Review: "Immoral Origins" by Lee Matthew Goldberg

How far would you go to help those you love? That's the question Lee Matthew Goldberg raises in Immoral Origins.

Thanks so much to Suzy Approved Book Tours, Lee Matthew Goldberg, and Rough Edges Press for inviting me on the tour for this book. It was wild!

Jake is a petty thief living in New York City in 1978. He mostly sells stolen goods, but he does it to help Emile, his younger brother, who has a host of health problems. He wishes there was a better way.

And then he finds her—a woman with a Marilyn Monroe mask at a Halloween party. It turns out she works for The Desire Card, a shadowy organization that promises to fulfill its high-paying clients’ wishes—for the right price.

As always, what seems too good to be true usually is. Jake finds himself falling for Marilyn and getting drawn deeper and deeper into The Desire Card. But little by little he realizes that it’s not only magnanimous wishes the organization is fulfilling—some of them are actually deadly. In that someone winds up dead.

Having read Goldberg’s Runaway Train trilogy, which so accurately captured the music and ethos of the 1990s, it came as no surprise that the late 1970s setting, complete with the excesses of Studio 54, felt so right. But the thriller elements of the book worked so well, too, that I couldn’t put this down.

This is the start of a brand new series worth reading. It’ll make you think twice about how much you’d sacrifice for those you love.

Book Review: "The Lincoln Highway" by Amor Towles

The Lincoln Highway is an ambitious story about fresh starts, righting wrongs, adventure, and big dreams.

Amor Towles’ A Gentleman in Moscow was one of my absolute favorite books when it was published a number of years ago, so I had very high hopes for his new book. And while I loved the story at its core, I felt it was so overstuffed with characters and meandered into so many side threads that it didn’t keep my attention the way I hoped it would.

In 1954, 18-year-old Emmett is being driven back to his Nebraska farm by the warden of the juvenile facility where he has spent the last 15 months. His father recently died and the farm has been foreclosed by the bank, so Emmett plans to pick up his 8-year-old brother Billy and go find a fresh start elsewhere.

What he doesn’t count on is that two of his friends from the work farm, Duchess and Woolly, have stowed away in the trunk of the warden’s car and have no intention of going back there. And they both have a different destination in mind than Emmett does.

The group agrees that Emmett will drop Duchess and Woolly off at the bus station as he and Billy start their journey. But a quick detour throws everything off-course, and sets everyone on a path to meet in New York, with adventures, danger, a little violence, and score-settling along the way.

The plot unfolds over 10 days and is narrated by a number of different characters. At times the story felt a little like This Tender Land, which I loved, but sometimes I found it so frustrating. But I know others loved this, so maybe you will, too!

Book Review: "Finlay Donovan Knocks 'Em Dead" by Elle Cosimano

The second book in Elle Cosimano's mystery series is a little zany, a little crazy, a little romantic…and a lot of fun!!

Your favorite duo of novelist Finlay Donovan and her nanny/sidekick Vero return for another set of madcap adventures! After being mistaken for a hit-woman and getting tangled up with the Russian mob, she’s trying to get her life on track and get her latest book finished.

And then she finds out that someone wants her ex-husband Steven dead, and they have gone looking online for someone to carry out the hit. Have there been lots of times Finlay has wanted to kill Steven? Sure, but she doesn’t really want him dead; her kids need their father, too.

So Finlay needs to figure out who wants Steven dead, and find who agreed to carry out the hit before it’s too late. In the meantime, she’ll have to cozy back up with the Russians, contend with Vero’s weird behavior, and deal with Detective Nick coming back around, not to mention Julian, the bartender/law student—and get her book in on time! That’s a lot for one person!

This really is such a fun series. It’s truly a source of sunshine and laughs amidst heavier books. Sure, it can be a little outlandish at times, but does it really matter?

BookSparks, Elle Cosimano, and Minotaur Books provided me with a complimentary copy of the book as part of #WRC2022. Thanks for making it available!

Book Review: "You Love Me" by Caroline Kepnes

In You Love Me, everyone’s favorite book-loving psychopath returns!!

Joe Goldberg, the protagonist of You and Hidden Bodies, has made his way to a quiet island in the Pacific Northwest. He’s a little older, a little wiser, and a little sadder, but he lands a volunteer job in—of course—a library. And then he meets her: Mary Kay DiMarco. She’s a LIBRARIAN.

But MK, as Joe refers to her, isn’t your typical librarian. She’s a short-skirt-wearing, fighting-with-her-teenage-daughter, flirty goddess, who is also a little older than Joe’s past, umm, relationships. He must have her. And she seems pretty into him, too.

This time, Joe is different. He’s not going to do anything impetuous. He wants happily ever after and it seems like MK wants it, too. There is the matter of her daughter, of course. And Phil, her aging rockstar husband. But Joe isn’t going to let that stop him. There’s too much riding on him following the right path. (As if.)

You Love Me is one of those books for which you need to read the prior books first in order to understand what’s going on. (I don’t watch television so I don’t know if watching the You series is enough of a catch-up.) If you’ve read the previous books, you know Joe is freaking crazy, and if anything, he may be crazier in this book than ever before.

While Caroline Kepnes gives you a different side of Joe in this book, it is such a slow burn that I just didn’t love it, despite the craziness and the twists that came later. I don’t know about you, but thrillers need to thrill me the whole way through. Anticipation is cool, but don’t make me wait too long for payoff.

Still, Kepnes has done a masterful job of creating an evil, crazy protagonist you can’t help but root for in a way. (Of course, picturing the face of Penn Badgley, who plays Joe in the television series, doesn’t hurt.) I know some have loved this book, so if you’re a fan and haven’t gotten to it yet, immerse yourself again in the world of Joe...and get ready for Book 4!

Book Review: "Notes on an Execution" by Danya Kukafka

Powerful, profoundly thought-provoking, and emotional, Danya Kukafka's Notes on an Execution is easily one of the best books I’ll read all year.

Today is the day Ansel Packer will be executed. He’s known that this day would come, he knows what he’s guilty of. But he doesn’t want to fade into obscurity—he wants to be remembered for his ideas. He’s been writing his Theory, a missive which explains his thoughts and philosophies (but it's not a manifesto) for years.

As much as this day and this story is about Ansel, it’s also about three women. Lavender, his mother, a teenager when she gave birth to him in 1973 and found herself trapped with no way out. Hazel, the twin sister of Ansel’s wife, who has always resented her sister’s easy path to happiness but wonders about this man she has found. And Saffy, the homicide detective determined to make Ansel pay for his crimes—a dogged determination built over decades.

The story counts down the hours until Ansel’s execution, but also follows him from childhood, and sees his life through the eyes of the three women. Are his crimes his own fault? Are they the fault of his upbringing, of ridicule at the hands of others, or is there something inherently wrong with him? Is a person truly bad or can a good person just go wrong?

Notes on an Execution is a gripping, phenomenal story, emotional and thought-provoking, one that made me wonder where I stood on so many issues. This would be ideal for a buddy read or book club because you will want to discuss this.

Many thanks to William Morrow Books for the complimentary advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. This truly was phenomenal.

Book Review: "Lucky" by Marissa Stapley

Looking for a totally bingeable caper with a terrific main character? Check out Lucky, the newest book from Marissa Stapley.

Lucky. That’s what her father always told her she was. A grifter for as long as she can remember, she’s always been able to stay one step ahead—sometimes just barely.

Now, she and her longtime boyfriend have pulled off a major multi-million-dollar scheme, and are ready to start a new life in Dominica with new identities, and they won’t have to grift anymore. But of course, her boyfriend disappears, leaving her with nothing but their names and faces being shown repeatedly on the news, so their time is up.

Or is it? As Lucky tries to come up with a plan to start over, she also has an interesting dilemma: the lottery ticket she bought is worth $390 million. But of course, if she comes forward to claim her prize, she’ll be arrested for her crimes. She needs to figure out a plan—and it’s going to require confronting her father, who got her started in the grifting life long ago, finding her mother, who abandoned her as an infant, and dealing with some people who have double-crossed her, including the man she thought she loved.

The story shifts between the present and the past, giving glimpses of Lucky’s life with her dad as well as the road that led her to her current situation, being abandoned and double-crossed.

I thought Lucky was fun and I couldn’t put it down. I saw one major twist coming, but it didn’t detract from how much I enjoyed the story and Lucky’s character. I wouldn’t mind another book with her at the helm!! (Plus, the Britney Spears song is in my head, and that’s a good thing!)

Book Review: "Razorblade Tears" by S.A. Cosby

S.A. Cosby's new thriller, Razorblade Tears, is a fantastically gripping story of revenge, regret, and transformation.

What is it that makes one author get an enormous amount of hype while another more talented one doesn't get the same recognition? Cosby has written two absolutely electrifying books—Blacktop Wasteland and now this—and if there was any justice, he would be a household name. Maybe this book will do the trick.

“Folks like to talk about revenge like it’s a righteous thing but it’s just hate in a nicer suit.”

Ike is devastated when he learns his son Isiah was murdered along with his white husband, Derek. Ike spent years in prison during his son’s youth, but his inability to accept Isiah’s sexuality and subsequent marriage was his biggest failing and caused the biggest strain in their relationship.

Buddy Lee, Derek’s father, is also an ex-con, and also fought with his son about being gay. Descending from a long line of racist miscreants, Derek was not only gay but married a Black man—double the sin, as it were, in his father's eyes.

But with the police unable to make any headway in their sons’ murders (or do they just not care?), Ike and Buddy Lee reluctantly team up to do some digging. They both know they may cross a line from which they can’t return, but both feel they owe it to their sons to find the person responsible. Along the way, they have to come to terms with their own prejudices and decide whether avenging their sons’ deaths is worth a return to violence.

Powerful, sad, gritty, and utterly searing, Razorblade Tears is easily one of the best books I’ve read all year and it was one of my most anticipated. It’s very violent, so that may be a trigger for some, but it is truly a fantastic book.