Blacktop Wasteland

May 4, 2020
Former wheelman Beauregard “Bug” Montage, the hero of this high-octane neo-noir thriller set in 2012 Virginia from Cosby (My Darkest Prayer), has attempted to put his criminal past behind him, and is now married with children and the owner of his own auto shop. But as his financial woes pile up—his business is failing, his terminally ill mother is being kicked out of her nursing home, his oldest child is almost in college—he’s forced to take a potentially lucrative job as a getaway driver in a jewelry heist with people he doesn’t trust. Somewhat predictably, the robbery goes wrong, and Bug is soon fighting for not only his own life but also the lives of his wife and children. The example of his own failed father dogs him throughout. The gritty, brutal narrative is complemented by the author’s sublime use of sensory description and regional imagery. In addition, the epic, jaw-dropping chase sequences that figure prominently are reason alone to read this pedal-to-the-metal but profoundly sorrowful novel. Cosby is definitely a writer to watch. Agent: Josh Getzler,Hannigan Salky Getzler.

May 1, 2020
A gifted getaway driver desperately wants to go straight, but he's towing around a lot of baggage. Beauregard Montage is a good mechanic in a bad fix. A son needs braces. His daughter needs tuition. His cancer-stricken mom's nursing home is demanding a lot of cash, fast. But his repair shop is about to go belly up. He needs money--and a lot more than he can make in illegal drag races in his classic Duster, because everybody in Red Hill County, Virginia, knows he's the fastest driver around. Is it any wonder he's thinking of returning to his criminal past for one more job that will solve all his problems--and feed his need for thrills to boot? The stage is eventually set for a big-dollar diamond heist--but the story's not that simple. This is also a novel about the struggles of being an African American man with an absent father who's "a ghost without a grave." The Montages have a family tradition for violence that Beauregard doesn't want to pass down. It's a true curse, he feels. "Money can't fix it and love can't tame it. Push it down deep and it rots you from the inside out. Give in to it and you end up doing five years in some hellhole." Beauregard's anguish makes him a sympathetic lead. But the supporting cast isn't nearly as compelling, and some turns of phrase ("Pockets of rust covered the hood like some oxidizing eczema," "Even after all these years, she still captivated the savage that lived between his legs") are as painful as anything anybody suffers in the bloody climax. The at-times action-packed ride can't hide the fact that this one doesn't fire on all cylinders.

COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from June 1, 2020

Beauregard "Bug" Montage was the best wheelman in town, but after his last score, he quit the business and bought an auto repair shop. He's married with three children, and he promised his wife that their children's daddy was going to be around for the long haul--no prison, no tombstone. Then another auto shop opens up. Bug's Black, the other guy's white, and Bug is losing money hand over fist. The bills don't stop, though: the kids' glasses and dental work, college tuition for his oldest, 30 big ones by the end of the month or they'll boot his mother out of her nursing home. Enter Ronnie Sessions, fresh out of prison and looking for a score. Bug doesn't want to play, but if this job comes off, his share will be 70 to 80 large. From this point on, we're in Elmore Leonard land: Ronnie's crew screws up, the robbery goes south, and a truly scary guy appears out of nowhere to pressure them into another heist, after which he plans to retire them permanently. VERDICT Bug's got a conscience not typical of the thriller genre, but other than that, this debut novel recalls almost perfectly the classic heist thriller in the vein of Richard Stark's "Parker" novels. It'll go like hot cakes.--David Keymer, Cleveland

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 1, 2020
Heist-novel fans are all-too familiar with the one-last-job premise, but Cosby trumps our expectations with a neat twist: the one-last-job that Beauregard "Bug" Montage, a Black wheelman turned garage owner, must take to keep his business going leads to one-more-last-job, and if the first one had fiasco written all over it, the next one has about as much chance of success as Evel Knievel jumping the Snake River Canyon. But Bug is no ordinary wheelman. Drawn by his father, also a legendary heist driver, both to fast cars and crime, Bug has been struggling all his life?especially after his father's disappearance?between two visions of himself: either pulling off one high-ticket caper after another, or living the straight life with his wife and two boys. He thinks he's put the fast lane behind him, but with a note due on his loan, he agrees to handle the driving on a jewelry-store job; unfortunately, the two goofs he's in it with have targeted a store owned by a gangster. Hence, the necessity of another job, this time to get out of the gangster's clutches. Cosby never misses a note in this high-energy read, from Bug's under-the-hood wizardry to the actual driving to the sensitive character building, which gives depth to the entire cast, including Bug's hapless yet treacherous associates. A superb work of crime fiction, uncompromisingly noir but deeply human, too, much like Lou Berney's November Road (2018).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)