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A Novel
by S. A. Cosby
Award-winning, New York Times bestselling author S. A. Cosby returns with King of Ashes, a Godfather-inspired Southern crime epic and dazzling family drama.
When eldest son Roman Carruthers is summoned home after his father's car accident, he finds his younger brother, Dante, in debt to dangerous criminals and his sister, Neveah, exhausted from holding the family―and the family business―together. Neveah and their father, who run the Carruthers Crematorium in the run-down central Virginia town of Jefferson Run, see death up close every day. But mortality draws even closer when it becomes clear that the crash that landed their father in a coma was no accident and Dante's recklessness has placed them all in real danger.
Roman, a financial whiz with a head for numbers and a talent for making his clients rich, has some money to help buy his brother out of trouble. But in his work with wannabe tough guys, he's forgotten that there are real gangsters out there. As his bargaining chips go up in smoke, Roman realizes that he has only one thing left to offer to save his brother: himself, and his own particular set of skills.
Roman begins his work for the criminals while Neveah tries to uncover the long-ago mystery of what happened to their mother, who disappeared when they were teenagers. But Roman is far less of a pushover than the gangsters realize. He is willing to do anything to save his family. Anything.
Because everything burns.
"Cosby hits some off notes: Roman's passage from rescuer to aspiring kingpin is almost too smooth, his growing appetite for violence is overplayed and undermotivated, and the book's unyielding nihilism can feel more suffocating than powerful. Still, Cosby continues to excel at evocative scene-setting and drawing richly detailed portraits of rural Black family life. This is best suited to the author's devoted fans." —Publishers Weekly
This information about King of Ashes was first featured
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Sam Sauter Photography
S.A. Cosby is the New York Times national bestselling award-winning author from Southeastern Virginia. His books include My Darkest Prayer, Blacktop Wasteland, Amazon's #1 Mystery and Thriller of the Year and #3 Best Book of 2020 overall, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice, Winner of the LA Times Book Award for Mystery or Thrillers and a Goodreads Choice Awards Semifinalist and the winner of the ITW award for hardcover book of the year, the Macavity for best novel of the year, the Anthony, the Barry, an honorable mention from the ALA Black Caucus and was a finalist for the CWA Golden Dagger. He is also author of the bestselling Razorblade Tears which was also nominated for numerous awards.
His short fiction has appeared in numerous ...
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