Whether it’s working at his cousin’s funeral home or tossing around the local riff raff at his favorite bar, Nathan Waymaker is a man who knows how to handle the bodies. A former Marine and Sheriff’s deputy, Nathan has built a reputation in his small Southern town as a man who can help when all other avenues have been exhausted. When a local minister with grandiose ambitions is found dead, Nathan … Nathan is approached by his parishioners who feel the local police are dragging their feet with the investigation. What starts out as an easy payday soon descends into a maze of mayhem filled with wannabe gangsters, vicious crime lords, porn stars, crooked police officers and a particularly treacherous preacher and his mysterious wife. Nathan must use all his varied skills and some of his wit to navigate the murky waters of small town corruption even as dark secrets of his own threaten to come to the surface.
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I loved this noir crime thriller. Nathan is the perfect anti-hero, like Easy Rawlins in Walter Mosley’s now iconic series. Stunning with fascinating characters. Loads of two-fisted action as deadly secrets spill out from all directions.
This book is gritty, violent and quite funny at times. Of course, it is a murder mystery that features an unforgettable cast of characters (perhaps the best part of the book). I enjoyed this book.
I look forward to reading other books from this author.
If you like your crime fiction served up gritty, dark, violent and sex-laced, with not an ounce of sentimentality or clichéd nod to domestic bliss, grab a copy of S.A. Cosby’s debut novel, My Darkest Prayer.
This is small-town, Southern noir at its finest, which does not mean slow, sleepy or sepia-toned. It’s a high-octane blast into a world of corrupt sheriffs, sleazy preachers, cutthroat church politics, blackmail, porn stars, drugs and murder. And money — lots of money.
And in Nathan Waymaker, a brooding and brawling ex-deputy and Marine (once a Marine, always a Marine, folks) combat veteran who is the son of a white father and black mother killed when they were run off the road by a rich man’s son, Cosby has created a compelling character driven by guilt, rage and his own bloody secrets.
Those inner demons have him living in a cell of his own making — a single room in his older cousin’s funeral parlor, where he works helping prepare the dead for burial. He’s a violent, tormented man trying to keep the lines of life simple and close, self-medicating to blunt the pain and memories and keep the devil down in the hole.
But Waymaker is also propelled by an iron-willed determination to dig out the truth, no matter the cost and no matter how much money is waved in his face to walk away. He doesn’t have a private investigator’s ticket, but is a man who will do favors for people — like look into the highly suspicious death of a shady preacher with a drug-dealing past that the local law is slow-walking.
For a small fee, of course. When the leading ladies of the preacher’s church come calling, he agrees to make a few quiet inquiries to see how his former employer, the county sheriff, is handling the case.
Quiet ain’t Waymaker’s game. And he pisses off a lot of people just by walking into a room — particularly redneck sheriff’s deputies. Instead of asking a few quiet questions, he seems bent on settling old scores with his former employer and doesn’t care how much china gets smashed as he bulls his way into the case.
The resulting blowback shifts the story into a vividly violent high gear, hurtling into a seamy landscape where few have any redeeming qualities and everybody has an angle they’re willing to kill for.
Buckle up and enjoy this ride.
This story has mystery, crime, thrills, gritty characters, gritty scenes, and every bit of it captured my attention and lost me in the world. People are starting to notice this author and for good reason. This story stands in a class of it’s own. It’s one of my top three favorite books right now for good reason.