Los Angeles Times Book Prize Winner * New York Times Notable Book * NPR’s Best Books of the Year * BookPage’s #1 Mystery and Suspense of the Year * Sun Sentinel’s #1 Best Mystery of the Year “I loved Blacktop Wasteland…[A] fast-paced, bareknuckle thriller.” -Stephen King “A roaring, full-throttle thriller, crackling with tension and charm.” -The New York Times Book Review “One of the year’s … with tension and charm.” –The New York Times Book Review
“One of the year’s strongest novels.” -Sun Sentinel
A husband, a father, a son, a business owner…And the best getaway driver east of the Mississippi.
Beauregard “Bug” Montage is an honest mechanic, a loving husband, and a hard-working dad. Bug knows there’s no future in the man he used to be: known from the hills of North Carolina to the beaches of Florida as the best wheelman on the East Coast.
He thought he’d left all that behind him, but as his carefully built new life begins to crumble, he finds himself drawn inexorably back into a world of blood and bullets. When a smooth-talking former associate comes calling with a can’t-miss jewelry store heist, Bug feels he has no choice but to get back in the driver’s seat. And Bug is at his best where the scent of gasoline mixes with the smell of fear.
Haunted by the ghost of who he used to be and the father who disappeared when he needed him most, Bug must find a way to navigate this blacktop wasteland…or die trying.
Like Ocean’s Eleven meets Drive, with a Southern noir twist, S. A. Cosby’s Blacktop Wasteland is a searing, operatic story of a man pushed to his limits by poverty, race, and his own former life of crime.
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Sensationally good — new, fresh, real, authentic, twisty, with characters and dilemmas that will break your heart. More than recommended.
Blacktop Wasteland thrums and races — an intoxicating thrill of a ride.
Urgent timely pitch-perfect jolt of American noir. S. A. Cosby is a welcome, refreshing new voice in crime literature.
On your marks, get set . . .
Beauregard “Bug” Montage is a man with problems; about to lose his auto repair shop, a family in dire need, and a mother in a nursing home on the verge of being kicked out if bills aren’t paid, he needs cash—now. So he turns to the one skill that can hopefully do that: driving a souped-up car at a high rate of speed like his father used to do but hopefully avoiding the pitfalls that ruined his father. After careful planning (hint: irony ahead) Bug joins in on a jewelry store robbery in the classic trope of “one last job.” No surprise, then, that just like that trope, the robbery goes spectacularly wrong with disastrous consequences that burn rubber for the rest of the book. In a whirlwind plot of car chases and shoot outs, the reader is pulled (or is it driven?) through a blacktop wasteland.
The writing is original and the details authentic—for the most part. I’m not so sure about cars flying off overpasses and other stunts that smack of B movie exploits but Bug’s plight is real and the pace keeps the reader turning pages.
The opening scene is excellent: a classic drag race (with a twist) that introduces the reader to Bug’s world. Even so, Blacktop Wasteland isn’t for everyone. There is a lot of car stuff, a lot of salty language and a lot of male attitudes that will most likely turn some readers off (are you listening, ladies?) and eventually one has to wonder about Bug’s moral choices. The violence can be jarring. One might call this book “Male Adventure” (whatever happened to that dusty genre?) rather than mystery/thriller but Bug is a three-dimensional character and the author knows his world.
Blacktop Wasteland is the perfect book for its audience; high octane thrills, plenty of noirish doings, a unique protagonist, and a spin on a familiar story all make it stand out in a crowded field, like an old muscle car sporting a fresh coat of custom paint.
The most intense crime novel I’ve read in years. Reminded me of an old favorite, A Simple Plan, in that you just KNOW everything’s going to go wrong, it’s just a question of how and when and how bad. If violence isn’t for you, neither is this book, but if you’re ready for a dark, heart-pounding thrill ride, grab it now.
Blacktop Wasteland is a terrific bit of OwnVoices crime fiction from African-American author S.A. Cosby, featuring African-American lead Beauregard Montage, one of the best — if not the best — wheelman in Virginia. To say this book is a ride is a helluva an understatement.
Montage has been trying to go straight and do right by his family, but living in poverty doesn’t make life easy. The mortgage on his auto body repair shop is past due, Medicaid stopped paying the nursing home caring for his ill mother, his daughter’s future is college is in jeopardy, and medical bills for his sons are piling up. When it rains, it pours, and Beauregard is absolutely drenched. He’s feeling the pinch hard when Ronnie Sessions, a con decked out in a litany of Elvis tattoos and fresh out of prison, comes with the promise of a lucrative heist and in need of a pro get-away driver. The money’s too good to ignore, and Beauregard promises both himself and his wife that after this one last job, he’s done for good.
Blacktop Wasteland is built off a number of tropes and cliches seasoned crime readers know by heart, but Cosby gets some really good mileage out of these well-worn treads, and even puts a fresh coat of paint on a few thanks to his focus on generational legacies and rural poverty, writing with a voice of authenticity. It’s a book that’s got character where it counts, and it’s the characters peopling this book that really make Blacktop Wasteland shine.
Beauregard is the kind of guy I’d like to have some beers with and listen to his stories, if he’d be willing to share them. Cosby builds a wonderfully tragic character with this dude, and we come to know him intimately by book’s end. There’s a constant pull of tension throughout, as we want to see him succeed and gets him what’s owed, but we also want him to breakaway from this life of crime and not have to repeat his father’s mistakes. Generations of poverty, racism, and crime have worked to severely limit his options, and making an honest living with his hands has only left him boxed in, with his back tight against a corner. Cosby does a great job illustrating how a man can be lured back into a life of crime, particularly after life keeps landing one blow after another. Beauregard is an utterly sympathetic figure, and smart as hell, to boot.
In Blacktop Wasteland’s opening chapter, we become immediately familiar with Beauregard and the type of man he is when he takes revenge on a con artist who robbed him of his drag street race winnings. It’s a terrific opening, and shines a light on his quick wits and sharp as a tack mind. Beauregard’s intelligence is on full display in the heists that follow, as he plans his routes and makes his daring escapes. Cosby writes some marvelous chase scenes, which, while exciting to be sure, put Beauregard’s brains front and center, and help illustrate why he’s the best wheelman in the biz.
Blacktop Wasteland is an absorbing, and frequently adrenaline-fueled, read. Cosby has a natural and fluid writing style, occasionally accented with welcoming moments of humor, like when Beauregard is greeted by the summer heat at 10AM, “the sun beating down on him like he owed it money,” or in highlighting Ronnie’s supposed charms, who “would sweet talk her until she had Type 2 diabetes….” Gritty, authentic, and featuring a fantastic protagonist, Blacktop Wasteland is a must-read crime novel, and instantly cements Cosby as an author I’ll be following from here on out.
Dubbed rural noir, BLACKTOP WASTELAND by S.A. Cosby is a mix of adrenaline, crime, backroads, and family. After I read the last page, I simply sat, holding this book, wondering how many superlatives I could string together. Some things are best kept simple. S.A. Cosby is a wordsmith of the first order and BLACKTOP WASTELAND is at times lyrical, raw, and poignant—but what elevates this story is that it’s always honest.
Hear me out: I had a hard time finishing this book. Not because it was bad. Just the opposite. It was so well-written, so intense, with so many amazing characters… and I knew bad things were going to happen to many of them. I took my time reading this book, savoring each word, and that’s not me being dramatic. I didn’t want it to end. I took a night off before reading the last three chapters, thinking about the story constantly. Wondering what was going to happen but not wanting to get to the end.
Just when I think I’ve read the best book I’ve read this year, I read something like this. The bar has been raised very high now.
S.A. Cosby’s Blacktop Wasteland roars to life with the intensity of a cash-prize, winner-take-all drag race. Devoted husband and father, and struggling but honest businessman, Beauregard “Bug” Montage is one missed payment away from his world crashing and burning. If that happens, he’ll have to rely on his other skill as one of the best getaway drivers in the rural Virginia. As much a battle for Bug’s definition of fatherhood as a race against the clock, Blacktop Wasteland is a fast-moving thrill ride, where part of you wants Bug to go all-back-in to his life of crime and the other wants to loan him enough money to not have to make the choice. S.A. Cosby’s voice crackles with both familiarity and originality, making his world of rarely seen in mainstream fiction small-town folk come to life, but every bit as understandable and flawed as your own family’s messed up cousin. With cover blurbs from Dennis Lehane, Lee Child, Walter Mosley, and other huge names, no one needs my review to let them know how popular this crime thriller should be. We can only hope a movie is in the works.
One can almost hear the low growl of the engines and smell the exhaust fumes while reading Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby.
This action-packed noir novel had grit and heart. The characters came right off the page for me. The pace was fast and the tension high. The story starts with a big hook and reels the reader in with a mini story within a story to get one acquainted with the main character and the dog eat dog approach to taking care of business.
Beauregard “Bug” Montage follows in his father’s dangerous footsteps becoming the wheelman for one last heist to set his family and business up. While this is most certainly a novel about fast cars, rip-offs, high stakes, and violence, it delves deeply into the question of whether one can be of two personas. Can the gun-toting criminal also be the straight up family man?
This was a highly enjoyable read for me and I would recommend it to others who like a little grease on their brow while slinging back a shot of Fireball and to those like me who don’t but like reading about it.
This book is fast, daring, angry, violent, loud, and all the “bad” things I’ve never before experienced in one novel. I could not put it down!
• Beauregard “Bug” Montage is just a guy trying to break free of his life as a getaway driver, but his last job proves there is more to a life of crime than the simple act of stealing diamonds.
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…to understand the challenges of living a straight life when it just keeps beating you down.
• Authentic
• Tough, gutsy characters
• Poverty and racism
• Where the grey bleeds into black
{Thank you to Flatiron Books for the free galley.}
Excellent southern noir. Great characters, setting and the plot drives along at a gripping pace. Crosby is a true storyteller.
Gritty, deep noir at its finest with echoes of Dennis Lehane and George Pelecanos.
With Blacktop Wasteland, S.A. Cosby claims his spot as one of crime fiction’s most notable authors. His protagonist, Beauregard “Bug” Montage, drew me in and won’t let me go. There are no easy answers or choices in this strikingly honest look at black life in the rural South. This book and this character will stick with me. I can hardly wait for the audiobook sequel, sure to be narrated by the masterful Adam Lazarre-White.
Read it in a day.
S.A. Cosby has taken one of the oldest tropes in crime fiction – the reluctant criminal who must do one more job – and invigorated it with original characters, searing emotions, and wordplay that’s a symphony to the ears. “Blacktop Wasteland” is a neo-noir thriller that crackles with suspense and white-knuckle action sequences.
Our hero with a checkered past is Beauregard (“Bug”) Montage, an African-American family man who owns an auto repair shop in the rural South. He’s also the best drag racer (and former getaway driver) around. His backstory: Bug spent years in juvenile detention after crashing a car into three men who were about to kill his ne’er-do-well father who then disappeared from Bug’s life.
Married with two children and a loving wife plus a daughter from a teenage romance, Bug has money problems. He resists returning to the criminal life, knowing it led his father to ruin. So it’s with deep a sense of regret that he agrees to be the wheel man in a diamond heist that’s intended to be quick, easy, and non-violent.
You see where this is going, but that’s okay. Yes, shots are fired. Blood is spilled. And it turns out the diamonds belong to a sadistically dangerous character. One crime leads to another, and we fear that Bug – driving his father’s souped-up Plymouth Duster – is on the same path as that wastrel. In the author’s words, Beauregard Montage is trapped on “a blacktop wasteland haunted by the phantoms of the past.”
Some writers are good with character, some with dialogue, and some with plot. Cosby hits all the bases, and his highly choreographed action sequences would look just dandy on film.
If awards are meaningful to you, “Blacktop Wasteland” scored a bunch, landing on the New York Times “Notable Books” list, NPR’s “Best Books” of 2020, and Oline Cogdills #1 Mystery of the Year in the Sun-Sentinel, among others.
Cosby has a new book out, “Razorblade Tears.” I haven’t read it yet, but you can be sure I will.
Best thriller I’ve read this year! If it becomes a movie, I’ll be first in line!
S. A. Cosby’s book is must-read. He is a master at setting, character, and suspense. The family dynamics and the dichotomies of character conflict are so well done. And I loved seeing all the familiar places in central and coastal Virginia.
Five high octane stars!
I think it was somewhere around page 100, (and this wasn’t a bad thing – still very interesting) author S.A. Cosby stepped on the gas and from then on, barely took his foot off. Only a bit of braking and then whoosh, the narrative sped along and I swear there were sirens woo-wooing, the squeal of rubber tires, and blue lights flashing in my bedroom as I read this energizing story.
There was so much to love, and now I’ve caught my breath, it’s like I want to get all breathless again talking about Cosby’s story. I loved some of his metaphors. The plot was tight.
Beauregard needs money. He’s got a family, and two boys who need the things growing boys need, a daughter who wants to go to college. He runs an auto-mechanic shop, but thanks to Precision, they’re taking all his business. The crickets are busier in “Bug’s” shop than he and his cousin, Kelvin are.
Bug has been in trouble in the past. His daddy disappeared on them when he was a kid, and he has, rightly or wrongly, put the man on a pedestal even while he mostly brought them trouble. Bug is sure he’s cut out to be just like his father. Bad = Bug. And so far, he’s trying to balance his two selves. The bad Bug, the good Bug. But. Debts. On top of everything, his auto-mechanic’s shop rent is due – past due actually, and his mama’s assisted living is about to boot her out due to a snafu in Medicare.
Yeah boy. Problems. So an opportunity comes by way of somebody he ought to know better than to trust. Good ole Ronnie and Reggie Sessions, two a**backwards thinking winners, I mean losers. But, Bug needs to do something. Off they go. They’re in the money! It gets sprinkled where it needs to and puts out the immediate fires. Only, then it goes bad. Then it gets worse. Then it gets EVEN worse. And you wonder how in the world can any one man stand it? You will have to read to figure out all that happens.
I wish there was a way to hook up a reader to a device to measure heart rate and blood pressure while reading such novels as this. Meanwhile, I’ll be over here trying to calm down.
I admit it—I’m a sucker for both Southern noir and heists, and Cosby doesn’t disappoint on either count. There’s nothing like whooping out loud for a muscle car that doesn’t sport a Confederate flag. Cosby renders the rural Virginia setting so vividly, I flashed back to my own upbringing in neighboring WV. (His protagonist mechanic Bug Montage would have approved of my first car, a crap-brown Maverick.) But what’s truly exceptional is experiencing this heist-noir from the POV of a person a color, with everything that entails. You don’t want to miss it.