This is a fantastic blend of realistic complications, mistakes, adjustments, and spunk. It's action-packed but character driven.
Bug's father was a getaway driver who disappeared years ago, but Beauregard (Bug) owns a respectable if struggling auto repair shop and has a wife and two kids. He's hardworking and loves his family, and he isn't planning on going anywhere.
But competition for his business is pinching his ability to help support his family, and some old, bad-news acquaintances show up with a promising, straightforward job that might offer some financial breathing room--if the others on the job can keep their heads on straight, and that's looking like a big if.
Blacktop Wasteland took a little while to get going for me, but just shy of halfway through, the setup is complete and the action starts singing along.
This is a fantastic blend of realistic complications, mistakes, adjustments, and spunk. It's action-packed but character driven. I'm not inherently interested in the preparation and modification of vehicles or in skillful evasive driving. It seems like it would be difficult to write those descriptions compellingly, but S.A. Cosby wrote it so that I was all in.
Bug is a faulted character who when not in crisis takes stock of himself and aims to be a better person. He's forced to consider what loyalty means, and to face how dark the path ahead might become when the bad guys are truly evil, very powerful, and the stakes couldn't be much higher.
The ending is abrupt and a little opaque, but not without hope.
I received an advance copy of this book from Flatiron Books and NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.
What did you think?
I love when an author writes in an engrossing way about something I previously had no inherent interest in (here: cars, car chases, etc.). Cosby has other books that look well-received, but I haven't read them yet. This is his newest.
This book made my Greedy Reading List of My Six Favorite Summer 2020 Reads.