Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby

February 5, 2022 2:34 PM

Razorblade Tears is set in rural southwest Virginia, the same as Cosby's previous book, the universally acclaimed Blacktop Wasteland. The story mines some of the same territory too, as our protagonist is a black ex-con who has turned his life around and is now a responsible family man, although he is estranged from his gay son who is happily married with a small child in Richmond.

Shit hits the fan when his son and son-in-law are brutally murdered in what is obviously a professional hit. After two months of nothing from the cops Ike teams up with the dad of his son-in-law, a redneck ex-con grifter who also failed to accept his son for who he is, and together shit gets very violent quickly as they get mixed up with a white supremacist motorcycle gang and a corrupt public official on the way to the truth, and a very high body count.

posted by COD (5 comments total)

This sounds fantastic, if really harsh. Is it part of a series?
posted by Zumbador at 8:38 PM on February 5, 2022

It's not a series, set in the same part of Virginia (which is where the author is from), but there is no connection between the stories of the two books.
posted by COD at 6:59 AM on February 6, 2022 [1 favorite]

Also, it's Southeast Virginia, not Southwest. I need an editor for my posts.
posted by COD at 7:29 AM on February 6, 2022 [1 favorite]

I really enjoyed this book. However, the violence was ridiculous. To get men to read something with a sensitive protagonist, do you have to have the sensitive protagonist kill, like, 200 people?
posted by acrasis at 10:36 AM on February 6, 2022

It is both fantastic and really, really harsh. I also really enjoyed this book--it pushed a lot of buttons for me.
posted by box at 2:44 PM on February 8, 2022 [1 favorite]