Thank you to NetGalley for this advance copy of Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby. At it's heart this was a book about a man struggling against his nature and where that leads him during a financially difficult period of his adult life. Beauregard Montage, aka Bug, has spent his adult life alternately running away from and then returning to a life of crime. Bug has a family to provide for and a garage to keep in business and when his back is against the wall he has to choose whether or not to stay on the straight and narrow path or fall back into old habits. His choice has implications for everyone he knows and loves.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable read, particularly for fans of heist stories and crime fiction. I enjoyed the writing style, which made it easy to picture the people and places that populated Blacktop Wasteland. I will definitely be keeping my eye out for the next book by S.A. Cosby!

Blacktop Wasteland is a beautifully written story about the struggle of a black man trying to be a good family man, while navigating through the world of crime as a brilliantly talented wheelman to make ends meet. The story realistically handles racism in today’s world, with meaningful encounters throughout the book showing how Beauregard, AKA Bug, the protagonist, tries to teach his children the importance of being better than him and acquiring education to give them the choices he never had growing up. He carries the weight of the world on his shoulders. One of Beauregard’s sayings to his child is ‘when you’re a black man in America, you live with the weight of people’s low expectations on your back every goddamn day’. This is just one of the hard-hitting realities Mr. Cosby, the writer, conveys to readers in a manner that will stick with you long after you finish reading the book.
The story flows naturally and in a fast-paced manner. Bug struggles to keep his mechanic shop afloat, with a competition taking away Bug’s customers. The desperation to provide for his family causes Bug to take part in one final heist as a wheelman. Bug is a natural behind the wheel. Sharp and meticulous. The car becomes a part of Bug when he’s driving it. It becomes a symbiotic bond, which makes for exciting and praise-worthy car chases. The driving portions are written so skillfully, I was in awe of their excellence. I felt the sequences to be cinematic, comparable to the excellent sequences of the movie Drive.
As a reader, you resonate with Beauregard’s conflicts as if you’re reading a memoir. Beauregard struggles with his dark past, and he struggles with the darkness inside him that makes him feel more alive behind the wheel driving away from the cops than being with his family. The book begs the question, if we can be more than our dark past, or are we configured to repeat the cycle of our ancestors. Every single character feels like a real-life personality. Every presence in the book holds weight. Which is why, the tragedies in the book hit me harder than I could have braced myself for.
This book could not come out at a better time. Reading through this gave me an insight into the harsh world of living as a black man in America, and with all the injustices going on with racial inequality, this book resonated with me in ways I could not have expected. I would strongly urge readers to get this book as soon as it comes out on 14th July. You will not be disappointed. I can absolutely say this is one of the best reading experiences I have had. It is a book for everyone. Huge thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.

Wow. Wow. Wow. Five big stars!
Absolutely nothing is going right in Beauregard “Bug” Montage’s life. The loan on his business is past due, his kid needs braces and he’s just been hit with a bill for his mother’s nursing home care. So, he goes back to what he did in a prior life- criminal planner and getaway driver.
This book is sad and gritty, all at the same time. Cosby has created some great characters here, starting with Bug. He’s a decent man who's been handed a raw deal. You just want things to work out for him. His mother is a total piece of work and it’s a testament to his decency that he doesn’t just walk away from her. And my God, Bug’s co-criminals are not going to win any awards for smarts or ethics. You just know that things aren’t going to go well.
The writing is fabulous. Take this phrase “he...had a hairline that was retreating like Lee at Gettysburg.” I was highlighting phrases, just so I could go back and review how crazy good the writing was.
This will appeal to those that like Lou Berney’s or Attica Locke’s writing. Very atmospheric, taking the time to set the stage before moving into a higher gear. Once things get rolling, the dominoes fall in rapid succession. I just did not see so much of this book coming. It was not only action packed, it was heartbreaking. I could see this book being easily transformed into a movie.
My thanks to netgalley and Flatiron Books for an advance copy of this book.

Beauregard “Bug” Montage has gone clean. He used to be the man to get if you needed a driver in a hurry. Not necessarily a legal hurry. He is living the life at the beginning of this story with his wife and two boys. But then a competitor opens up a cheaper garage and money problems start and Bug starts worrying about how the bills are going to get paid.
Enter in a diamond heist that two dumb butts have the perfect crime planned out for. They just need a driver.
"I asked around about you, boy. They say you could outrun the devil on the highway to Hell."

And Bug can.
But as far as perfect crimes go this one is like most of them. They go bad.


Bug ends up in way deeper than he ever imagined. The two idiots that set up the heist had no clue who they were messing with.
You caught between a wannabe Pablo Escobar chopping motherfuckers up and putting them in grease buckets and a redneck Walter White. When you fuck up you do it right.

I flipping loved every single second of this book. Bug was the character that I could see his point of view so well that I actually thought several times that I was in that car with him. This author can write his ass off.
My daddy was right. You can't be two types of beasts. Eventually one of the beasts gets loose and wrecks shop. Rips shit all to Hell.

I'm gonna go licks the wounds that this book gave me and bask in the book hangover that only a select few books can give.


Booksource: I received a copy of this book from the publisher thru Netgalley in exchange for review. I loved it all on my own.

I received a free advance copy of this from NetGalley for review.

You know how some cars have a handhold mounted above the doors on the interior, and you hear people call them the “Oh-Shit-Handle” because if you’re a passenger and something crazy happens you might find yourself clutching it while screaming expletives?

This book should come with an Oh-Shit-Handle because it’s that kind of ride.

Beauregard “Bug” Montage was a professional criminal whose planning skills were second only to his driving abilities. However, he left that life behind to be a husband and father, and he started his own automotive repair shop in rural Virginia. Unfortunately, business has gotten slow, and the bills are piling up. That’s when an old associate who burned Bug on a previous heist shows up with the promise of an easy score. Feeling that he has no other options, Bug decides to do the job even though he has grave concerns about who he’ll be working with.

What could possibly go wrong?

I wrote about how S.A. Cosby came to my attention at the 2019 Bouchercon in my review of his first book, My Darkest Prayer, and with his second book he continues to deliver.

The idea of a former criminal trying to go straight who takes one last job has certainly been done before in crime fiction. Cosby hits all the familiar beats with the planning, the heist, the twist, all the other elements you’d see in a Richard Stark novel, and he does them well. As just a crime novel this makes for a helluva page turner.

Where the book hits the next gear (Get it?) is in the character work done with Bug, and it’s all about the relationships. First, there’s the daddy issues with Bug being haunted by his unresolved feelings for his father, a criminal who vanished at a critical moment in Bug’s youth. Then there’s the hateful dying mother he feels obligated to support. Finally, there’s the wife and kids he dearly loves and is trying to make a brighter future for.

Like many a character in a crime fiction like this, Bug claims he’s doing it all for his loved ones, but there’s a part of him that also loves the outlaw life. It also fits his violent tendencies better than being a family man, and one of the key things that Cosby digs into here is the notion of a person split between two conflicting lifestyles that are fundamentally opposed. In the end the book is really about Bug coming to terms with who he really is, who he wants to be, and what kind of damage he’s already done to the people he loves.

In addition to all this, the writing just absolutely cooks. There’s great action, gritty violence, humor, heartbreaking moments, and while reading there were some driving sequences where I found myself pressing my foot on the floor as if I could stomp the brake to slow the car down. I grew up in a rural area, and I may have broken a few speed limits on country roads in my youth so Cosby’s descriptions of what that rush is like really hit home for me,

It’s a fantastic follow up to his first novel, and it makes me more sure than ever that Cosby is a writer to watch.

Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby is a crime thriller involving Beauregard "Bug" Montage. Bug is the owner of a small auto repair shop, trying to make ends meet and live what many consider a normal life when financial problems keep landing at his doorstep. In what seemed to be a past life, Bug was known to be one of the best getaway drivers in the East but has since turned from that lifestyle to raise his two boys with his wife, Kia, while operating his business.

Mostly beyond Bug's control, financial difficulties continue to mount, causing Bug to reconsider his choice of the retirement of his getaway driving skills. Soon, because of limited financial paths, Bug is enticed into entering into what has been described to him as a "sure-thing" heist with two white trash, pecker-wood brothers. Not long after, because of his enticement and how things rarely go as planned, Bug is soon involved with two groups of even more dangerous criminals, with few places to turn.

Blacktop Wasteland contains a wide range of well developed supporting characters and a tinge of generational history to Beauregard "Bug" Montage to add interest to his story. As the novel unfolds, Cosby creates a likable Bug as a man trying to do the right things and where readers hope for a positive outcome, while at the same time, the reader feels an impending doom is more likely.

This is the first novel I have read by S.A. Cosby and it was such a pleasant surprise. The story moves along at a fast pace and like clockwork without seeming to be a cookie-cutter like assembled crime novel. While reading the novel, it was easy to picture what was being read in a cinema-like fashion. On top of that, due to the cover illustration, through the novel I kept picturing the actor Sterling K. Brown as Beauregard "Bug" Montage (hopefully it won't be long before a movie studio picks up the rights to this novel).

It is also easy to predict, Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby will be on many top ten lists as the end of the year approaches.

Blacktop Wasteland is highly recommended to fans of crime thrillers, Grit Lit/Southern Noir, and novels from authors such as George Pelecanos and Dennis LeHane.

An ARC was provided by Flatiron Press/Netgalley for the promise of the return of an honest review.

For a while there, things were great.

Beauregard “Bug” Montage had a happy family and his own business. His days as a wheelman were long over, and he's walks a straight and narrow line now. But . . . money's tight, and times are tough, and all of a sudden, the walls are closing in. Bug needs money --- FAST. So, the timing couldn't be better (or maybe worse) when an old acquaintance shows up with a proposition.

Will Bug risk it all for one last turn behind the wheel?

This was a thrill-a-minute ride with a strong Elmore Leonard vibe. I can't imagine crime fiction fans NOT liking this book.

Seat belts are highly recommended.

Cosby's "Blacktop Wasteland" is a lesson in what makes a great crime fiction novel. And, when I say great, you better believe it. It harkens back to all the top caper novels. It's all about a guy named Beauregard Montage, better known as "Bug." And, Bug is just trying to go straight, to life a good life, be a good husband, a good father. But, as Springsteen once said, he's got debts no honest man can pay. He's going to lose the garage business he's built up over the years since he got out.

And, maybe, if he pulled one last job, he'd be able to provide for his family. See, Bug is a driver. He's a driver like Steve McQueen is a driver and no one is at one with a set of wheels like Bug. But, see the thing is when you're desperate you don't have the luxury of picking your jobs and you can't pick your partners. The job ain't planned out to the second like Bug wants and his partners are trying out for a walk on part in Goodfellas. Like any good noir novel, you can already sense the whirlpool starting and you know it's all going to go sideways. Bug is like a drowning man without a damn life preserver.

Bug is a terrific complex character who can't get off the road he's on. The writing in this novel is absolutely fantastic. Every page counts. Every word counts.

Many thanks to the publisher for providing a copy for review.