I loved this book. It has heart and goes places you wouldn’t expect. Yes, Roadhouse influences the machoism. Not always bad. 4/5 stars for me.

Congratulations to Scott Blackburn for a wonderful debut. I will definitely be on the lookout for what he does next. The book was filled with interesting well developed characters. I enjoyed the male point of view which isn’t common in the books I read. It didn’t take me long to finish this book and with my busy life I don’t like wasting my time. That didn’t happen here.. Thank you Net Galley for this ARC.

This book will be a great hand-sell for anyone who likes gritty, Southern page-turners like David Joy. The character development is terrific and believable, and I loved the diversity of the characters. It's not forced--it's the South as it is today. Blackburn gives us a snapshot of this moment in time, where the Good Old Boy network is still firmly in charge here and there, but being dismantled (with some ambivalence) by the next generation. The addition of an immigrant character who happens to be a strong young woman is a great twist to this story.

A fantastic haymaker of a debut novel that marries the classic rural noir themes and the prose of an establish writer.

Hudson Miller, just shy of thirty, is a professional boxer on the downslope of a once-promising boxing career now finds himself supplementing his income as bartender and bar bouncer after a misconstrued violent video of him goes viral practically ending his boxing career.

Shortly after ignoring two cellular telephone calls from his estranged father Leland, he is later contacted by a detective from his hometown telling him his father has been murdered at his salvage yard in an apparent robbery gone wrong.

Hudson hasn’t been to Flint Creek, North Carolina in decades and upon his return is not faced with opened and welcoming arms by authorities or a hostile mother-in-law as the return of a long-lost favored son.

To add to his troubles, he soon becomes responsible for the running of the salvage yard and is forced to start dealing with elderly, set in his ways, cantankerous employee Charlie Soaf. Soaf, a former combat war veteran, is also openly hostile to Hudson, but quickly on, Hudson realizes he needs Charlie Soaf just as much as he needs Hudson.

To many, Soaf is believed to possess more information than he has cared to reveal and as more information is learned, local authorities lean to believe the murder of Hudson’s father may be an incident of a killing through criminal misadventure.

While Hudson and his father had an acrimonious relationship due to past issues, he still feels a need to solve the killing, especially when local law enforcement seems less than enthused in determining the reason for the murder, or more importantly, let alone finding a suspect.

After another grisly find at the salvage yard, Hudson and Charlie then encounter stubbornly unstoppable head-strong teenager Lucy Reyes. Reyes, with methods of her own, is on a mission in solving a mystery of her own and if Hudson and Charlier get in her way, she makes it clear there will be Hell to pay.

The trio then moves forward in their investigation leading them to encounters with a collection of oddballs, criminals, and do-nothing officials spread across several counties in North Carolina.

For me, It Dies With You started out slow and somewhat clumsy, but soon straightened out and picked up and held my attention as the story developed. The novel is set to be released in June of 2022 and succinctly described as a good summer beach read and a good start for a first-time novelist.

This review was originally published at MysteryandSuspence.com

Netgalley provided an ARC for the return of a fair review.

Blackburn is to be congratulated on this debut novel. The action is clear and concise and moves at a reasonable pace. The characters are well defined. The timeline is straight forward and the mystery of Who dunnit or who dunnit to them or Why? made a lot of sense within the plot. Everything is nicely tied up at the end, but yet leaves room for a sequel.

As I was reading this, I was thinking what a good TV series this would make – I hope it’s being considered as I think it would be a winner!

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Crooked Lane Books, for an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

Although this book was not to my liking, others might enjoy it…sent to me by. Netgalley for review…the story moves slowly…the characters are not totally likable…

I could not believe after I finished reading that this was a debut novel. It Dies With You is a spectacular, character driven literary work of southern crime fiction. The characters - Hudson Miller a 29-year-old professional boxer who is bar bouncing while he waits for his boxing suspension to be over, Charlie Shoaf a grizzled 71-year-old beer drinking Vietnam vet and Lucy Reyes a feisty and determined 15-year-old Latino school girl whose brother’s murdered body has just been found become an unlikely trio. They are determined to find out who shot and killed Hudson’s dad and who murdered and hid the body of Marcos Reyes in the Miller salvage yard in the small NC town of Flint Creek, NC. A must read for fans of Wiley Cash and Brian Panowich.

Hudson Miller has been suspended from boxing, something he loved, for a mistaken ruling. Forced to live on a friends couch while working as a part-time bouncer/ bartender to survive. When he gets a call his father has been murdered, he's shocked to learn he’s inherited the scrap yard and rentals his father owned. They hadn't been even remotely close. He has no choice, because of his current financial situation, but to go back to a town he said he'd never go back to in order to take over the business long enough to sell it.. Nothing goes as planned. His life seems to be a target now and the business is barely earning any money. An unlikely group of three form a pact to find out who killed his dad and find out what really happened to a young man who went missing.
The story has plenty of action and likable characters. It's a book that will appeal to the male reader,
Thanks to NetGalley, Publishers Crooked Lane New York, and Scott Blackburn for allowing me to read this debut eARC. He will have a bright future as an author.

A gritty story about small town living and finding yourself, while reckoning with complicated familial relationships, It Dies With You is a gratifying debut novel from Scott Blackburn that that explores important life lessons such as tenaciously pursuing the truth, discovering your purpose, and that friendship transcends age when forged through shared experiences.

Hudson Miller is a down-on-his luck boxer and bouncer/bartender who’s near broke and crashing at a friend’s apartment when he finds out his estranged father has been murdered. Hudson has no love lost for his father and is shocked to hear he’s inherited some rental properties and a salvage yard. With few prospects for making money, Hudson moves back to his small hometown of Flint Creek to take over the family business. While getting the lay of the land, a gruesome discovery at the salvage yard leads Hudson to team up with Charlie, a grumpy employee/Vietnam veteran, and Lucy, a teenage girl searching for her missing brother. Together, this unlikely trio will band together to investigate what happened to Hudson’s dad and Lucy’s brother, letting nothing stand in their way to discover the truth and bring the perpetrators to justice.

Fans of southern crime thrillers will want to run out and preorder a copy of It Dies With You. It’s well-written with solid pacing, good character development and a satisfying ending. An enjoyable reading experience all around. And I recommend you add Scott Blackburn on your list of authors to follow because he’s got the goods to keep producing compelling novels with characters you want to root for.

Scott Blackburn is about to hit the ground running hard with his debut southern crime novel, It Dies With You. The novel is a gritty portrait of southern sprawl, as a part-time boxer and bouncer Hudson Miller is suddenly called home when his estranged father is murdered in what looks like a botched robbery of his junkyard business. With Leland’s empire consisting of nothing more than a little cash, some trailers he rented, and land that is all but impossible to get rid of because of toxic automobile fluids leaking deep into the topsoil, solving the mystery of who killed his father and for what reason becomes more attractive than continuing his dead-end life. Leland’s ex-wife got nothing, his business partner knows nothing, and a terrifying discovery leads Hudson, Leland’s old partner Charlie, and a local teen Lucy down a rabbit hole of threatening corruption that none of them may survive once they begin to uncover the truth.

Blackburn’s prose is a striking addition to southern crime fiction. He has written a tight novel about the implications of mistakes on small-town life and has been able to approach his subjects in a manner that satisfies both the potboiler fan and the character-driven literary audience. This book flies by, and it isn’t lost on me that there may have been some intentional Twin Peaks references (Leland? Abandoned boxcar?!) and maybe even a drop of my name in there. It is a wonderful book that rides on the crime genre easily but also seems to capture the true dynamic of sprawl, divorce, male relationships, abandonment, trying to find your way on your own, and being unsure what the right choices are, especially when there’s nothing left to lose.

It Dies With You is out on June 7th 2022 from Crooked Lane Books. I am grateful Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley provided the review ARC I received of this gripping novel. Blackburn’s debut promises a shining career with every follow-up, and I look forward to everything that comes next.

Synopsis: An Ex-boxer, now bartender-slash-bouncer finds himself to be the new owner of a junkyard pick-and-pull. His estranged father has left him the business after being murdered in a robbery gone bad. Worse, the pick and pull is located in his hometown, a place Hudson NEVER planned to move back to. It becomes increasingly obvious someone else doesn’t want him to come home either, as efforts escalate to scare Hudson out of town. Could it have something to do with the illegal gun running his father seems to have been mixed up in? Couple that with a second body and you have a volatile situation.
I liked this book and would consider it a great ‘man read.’ It’s written in a cocky-macho voice from a first-person point of view. It has great supporting characters, like Charlie, a grouchy old shop guy who agrees to stay on at the junk yard so long as Hudson can pay him in cash and beer. And Lucy, a teenage girl whose brother has gone missing; she is intent on finding out what happened to him, even if it means bulldozing her way into Hudson and Charlie’s own little private investigation. There are other side characters, a Tammy Fay look-alike, and some slimy other guys. However, the author does an excellent job keeping the antagonist a secret until the end. There is a moral to the story, and in my own opinion, this is where Mr. Blackburn gets his title. I think ‘It Dies With You’ it is a subtle reference to a person taking responsibility for their own actions. Supporting quote? “Own that defeat.” This is in reference to Hudson’s first pro boxing loss; he let his guard down and he lost the fight. No one else’s mistake, he blames nether his coach or his team. He applies it to the rest of his life; he owns his defeats, and they die with him.
In the end, we get a good sum up of all the situations and all the characters. I liked that I didn’t have to think to hard; coming off a much heavier read, I appreciated not having to invest too much of myself emotionally. I enjoyed the story and considered it a good in-between read. Thank you to Netgalley and especially Crooked Lane Books for the opportunity to read this debut novel!

This one is more about the dynamic characters than the mystery. Starts with a slow burn and then rockets toward a conclusion. Hudson Miller is a n ex-boxer floating by bar tending and bouncing at a bar. His life is forever altered when he gets the news that his estranged father has been murdered. Altered, not because of any loving feelings toward his old man, but because he’s been willed his father’s salvage yard business and rental property. While trying to gain his footing as a newly ordained businessman, Hudson also feels compelled to figure out who killed his father. The stakes rise even higher when a second murder is discovered at the salvage yard. As I mentioned, the characters are superb, and this second murder introduces teenager, Lucy, who along with Hudson and an old man named Charlie form the unlikeliest crime-solving trio. A quick, blast of a read. Recommended.

Thanks for the ARC copy of this book. I didn't know what to expect from this author, but was pleasantly surprised. The plot was great, the writing style was good, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I kinda suspected the twist ending, but I loved it nonetheless. Blackburn created great characters who you could really enjoy reading about.

I really enjoyed this read! Hudson was a well-developed character. He didn’t really grieve over his father’s passing, but he felt the man didn’t deserve to be murdered. There is a lot of toxic history there, and Blackburn does a nice job giving bits of information in such a way that readers are not overloaded.

I loved the by-play between Hudson and Charlie. Charlie seems like an absolute trip. Just give him his weekly pay and some Keystones. He knows what he likes, but he isn’t afraid to work hard. At first, Charlie comes across pretty sour, but he warms to Hudson. I especially liked at the end how Charlie continues to work for Hudson even after all of the crazy stuff happens.

While the story didn’t have a huge surprise or twist, I felt Blackburn let this mystery unravel in a way that made it believable with a corrupt police chief as one of the factors impeding the investigation in Hudson’s father’s death. As much as it pains me to admit, the story is very plausible! I do feel the ending was a bit rushed as they exposed the killer, but it also tied everything up nicely. Sometimes, as a reader, it is nice to know the story is complete versus getting a cliffhanger.

Thank you to Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you Netgally and Crooked Lane Books for the privilege of reading Scott Blackburn’s debut mystery novel. The characters were so well developed and seemed real to me as the story unfolded. Set in a rural North Carolina town the reader learns the dangerous world of secrets that are meant to stay buried, no pun intended.

For nearly a decade, Hudson Miller has made his living as a boxer. At the age of 29, that career has derailed and now Hudson is desperate for money. Aptly, Hudson takes a job as a bouncer at a local bar. Then another life hit happens when he is informed that his estranged father, Leland, has been murdered in what appears to be a robbery-gone-bad at his salvage yard, Miller’s Pull-a-Part.

Leland’s will reveals that Hudson has inherited the salvage yard. For this reason, he returns to his Southern hometown of Flint Creek, North Carolina, to run the business. Upon taking ownership of Miller’s Pull-a-Part, Hudson soon realizes the business is far more than junk cars and scrap metal. It appears to be the site of an illegal gun-running ring. More secrets are uncovered when a grisly discovery is made at the yard that puts Hudson into a fight unlike any he encountered in the boxing ring. This one could prove to be fatal.

Hudson, hoping to find answers, he seeks out his father’s former employee, 71-year-old, beer-guzzling Vietnam vet Charlie Shoaf. He also joins forces with a feisty teenage girl, Lucy Reyes, who’s looking for justice for her own family tragedy. The police were absolutely no help when her brother went missing.

Readers, you will not be able to predict the truths they uncover as the secrets are revealed in the end.

I’m a North Carolina girl so I really liked the setting that was so true to our own rural towns.
I’m pleased to have read the debut novel of a fellow North Carolinean who has now shared his talent with the world.

A compulsory read! Once you start, you can’t put this book down! The main characters are so real and imperfect they feel as if they could be your neighbors. This slow burning mystery kept me trying to figure out what was going to happen next and who the culprit was.

A former boxer and current down on his luck bouncer, Hudson (Hud), finds out his father was murdered in the small town he grew up in. Upon returning to the town he thought he left behind, Hud finds out his estranged father left him a salvage yard where some shady business takes places and three rental trailers. With the police department not making any headway on his dads murder case, Hud teams up with Charlie, a Vietnam vet who used to work for his dad, to learn the ropes of running a salvage yard. Soon after reopening the salvage yard a body is discovered, which brings Lucy, the sister of the deceased into Hud and Charlie’s lives. An unlikely trio, these three become determined to find out what happened to the two murder victims for their own sense of closure. Will this trio discover what happened at the salvage yard or will someone prevent them from discovering the truth?

Thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for allowing me access to this arc in exchange for an honest opinion.

I had intended to read just a few paragraphs and then settle in on some other books I was behind on. It Dies With You is this authors first novel and I was pulled in from the beginning.

Hudson is a sold character who never claims to be perfect and owns his life choices. That humbleness is what draws you into him. When his estranged father is murdered, Hudson finds himself the beneficiary of a salvage yard.

Charlie used to work for Hudson’s father. Since Hudson has zero clue how to run a salvage yard, he agrees to stay and keep working on. This guy is a character! He regrets staying on when his dog finds a crushed car with a dead body in it on the property.

Enter Lucy, the teenage sister of the dead guy, headstrong and determined to find out who killed her brother. This unlikely trio bands together to find out who killed Hudson’s dad and Lucy’s brother.

This is a promising author and I’ll be looking for his next book. I’m wondering if he’ll give Hudson and Charlie another installment. I think it could work.

This book is definitely a good suspense story wrapped in a mystery. It has a dark tale of hidden secrets that are boiling beneath this idyllic town. The twist in the story wasn't quite what I was expecting.

Hudson Miller works as a bouncer part time at a hole in the wall bar. One night he gets involved in an altercation at the bar and is sent home early. In the middle of the night he receives two back to back phone calls from his dad, someone he has spoken to in years. He ignores the calls. The next morning his phone rings again, only this time its the police. The man on the other end of the line tells him his father has been found murdered at his place of business, Miller Pull a Part, the local salvage yard.

Hudson arrives in Flint Creek shortly after the call. He stops in to visit his stepmother and see what the police might know so far. Turns out they know nothing and his stepmother is useless. In searching the salvage yard they come across a buried vault full of what looks to be illegal guns. Could this have something to do with his fathers murder? Just about the time Hudson decides he's ready to leave town, he gets a call from his fathers lawyer. He informed that the will has been read and his father left him three rental houses and the salvage yard.

Hudson is on the fence as to what he should do. He's tired of being a bouncer/bartender and would like to start a gym of his own someday. However, lacking funds has kept him from this. So he decides to take a leap and get into the salvage business, despite not knowing anything about cars. He ends up hiring his dad associate, Charlie Shoaf, a Vietnam veteran who brings his dog, Buster, the sort of junkyard guard dog. Hudson ends up moving back to his home town, even taking one of the rentals to live in. Things seem to be going alright at first. Not making a ton of sales, but learning the business is a process, especially when his dad didn't believe in computer records.

With things trekking along, Hudson starts to think that maybe this junkyard gig will work out after all. That is until Buster stumbles upon something buried in the yard. A crushed car, buried in the ground, with a body in the trunk. They call the cops and of course things get hairy. Charlie says he knows nothing of anyone being murdered and then buried there and if he didn't do it, that only leaves one person-Hudson's dad, Leland. The police soon identify the body as a 22 year old kid named Marco, who had been missing since the previous year. Marcos mom and sister are the only family left and his sister, 15 year old Lucy, has been searching for him ever since he went missing. Interviewing people, keeping a detailed record of who she's talked to and even creating an Instagram page about it.

Soon, Hudson, Charlie and Lucy are all working together to find out who not only killed Marco but Leland too even if it means Leland killed Marco. As they investigate strange things start happening. First, the shop is broke into and ransacked and then Charlie and Hudson are nearly run off the road. All this leads to a shocking discovery about who the killer is and all the secrets of this seemingly idyllic town come to light.

This is a quick read. There weren't any really slow parts. The chapters are short which I like as it seems to read faster. The characters are interesting and I was intrigued by the story. I felt Lucy was a little to impulsive for her age but overall, its a great story.

Something to anticipate in 2022.

I don't think I have ever fell in love with a fictional character as much as I loved Hudson. Something about him was compelling. Even after reading the whole story I am still left wanting more.

A former boxer, part time bar bouncer Hudson Miller is barely making it. One night he receives a call from his estranged father; He does not answer it. The next day Hud gets a call from the cops saying that his dad was found murdered in his salvage yard probably a robbery gone wrong?

He goes back to Flint Creek the town he grew up in for the funeral. Only to find out that his dad has left him the junkyard in his will. To make the matter worse, while trying to run the business with his father's employee Charlie Shoaf a 71 years old Vietnam veteran another dead body was discovered in that same yard! who's the body and what does it have to do with Hudson's father?

In this small town where the local law enforcement aren't doing their part of the job. An Unlikely amatuer trio join forces to try and find out what is really happening in this town. Uncovering the secret would definitely change the town for good.

I could not believe this was a debut novel. Blackburn surely knows how to paint pictures with words. The story is told by our main character Hudson. We follow him as he uncovers the secrets hidden in the town he grew up in. Including his father's second life that no one really knew about. The whole setting felt rustic and southern. A slow burn fun read with captivating characters.
Their conversations felt smooth. Charlie is one funny old man.

The Lucy character added a teenage vibe to it. I would have preferred it to be more on the thrilling/adult side. But overall, I still enjoyed it until the very end.

Looking forward more of Scott Blackburn.

Thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for this copy.
#ItDieswithYou #NetGalley