Thursday, July 30, 2020

Book Review: "Blacktop Wasteland" by S.A. Cosby

Now HERE’S an excellent crime novel/thriller for you: S.A. Cosby's new book, Blacktop Wasteland!!

“You were never out of the Life completely. You were always looking over your shoulder. You always kept a gun within reach, not buried under cement in your basement. Having a gun nearby was the only way you could pretend to relax.”

Once the best getaway driver on the East Coast, Beauregard “Bug” Montage has put that life behind him. He’s a husband, a father, an excellent mechanic. But lately the pressure has been mounting—the kids need glasses, braces, everything, and business has slowed down—and he doesn’t know how to get his head above water.

So when a guy with whom he’s worked before shows up, recently out of prison and talking about a can’t-miss scheme involving a jewelry store and a tremendous payoff, Bug can’t resist the temptation to get back behind the wheel again, despite everyone’s warnings to the contrary.

What Bug doesn’t really count on, however, is just how messy a web he’s about to step in. At the same time he’s trying to figure out what kind of life he really wants to lead, he’s haunted by memories of his father, who also was a renowned wheelman, and who disappeared when Bug was younger. His father left him a classic car, and he can't help but conjure up memories of him each time he gets behind the wheel.

In addition to some pulse-pounding chases and action scenes, this book explores the idea of whether a life of crime is somehow hard-wired in our genes, or if it’s just a life some are backed into. S.A. Cosby is such a fantastic writer because he makes you root for Bug and his family despite the choices he made. I've never read any of Cosby's earlier books but I'm definitely going to check them out now!

Such a fantastic book, both fast-paced and cerebral.

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