Razorblade Tears, by S. A. Cosby
Time was a river made of quicksilver. It slipped through his grasp even as it enveloped him. Twenty became forty. Winter became spring, and before he knew it he was an old man burying his son and wondering where in the hell that river had taken him.
Ike Randolph, a Black man with a criminal past, never really accepted his gay son. Neither did Buddy Lee, a white man who also has a criminal past and whose son married Ike's. When their sons are murdered (not in a hate crime), the fathers join forces to try to make up in vengeance for the love they failed to show in life.
Folks like to talk about revenge like it’s a righteous thing but it’s just hate in a nicer suit.
I LOVED this book. I loved it even more than Blacktop Wasteland. It has a lot of similarities - a killer premise, fabulous noir metaphors, and great action sequences - but it's much more emotional and heartbreaking. Ike and Buddy Lee's relationship is fantastic, and the supporting characters (including, in a way, their sons) are vivid. I loved the black comedy of Ike, who owns a landscaping company, using all sorts of landscaping tools to wreak havoc.
Chopping up your first body is disgusting. Your second is tiresome. When you're doing your fifteenth, it's all muscle memory.
Razorblade Tears is sad and funny and violent and thought-provoking and very easy to read, though maybe not in one sitting as it's pretty intense. It takes tropes from pulp fiction and buddy action movies and noir, executes them beautifully so if you like those tropes you'll love what Cosby does with them, and also uses them to tell a wrenching story about grief and love.
Content notes: Violence, a child in danger, gross stuff involving Buddy Lee's lung condition, and depictions of racism, homophobia, and transphobia.
S. A. (Shawn) Cosby was a star at Bouchercon. He's phenomenally charismatic. He said that he wrote the book because a family member who was gay left town as soon as he turned eighteen, because of homophobia from his own family and community. So he wrote this book from the point of view of those other people, in the hope of getting through to them. He felt very comfortable getting inside the shoes of Ike and Buddy Lee, but consulted with gay friends on the portrayal of the gay characters and community.
He said, "I had a version of a scene where a fight breaks out at a gay bar, and in the first draft there's just the two people fighting, and everyone else just stands around shaking their heads in sad disapproval, like monks. I sent it to my friend and he said, 'No man, a brawl at a gay bar is like any barroom brawl.'"
This was one of Barack Obama's 20 favorite books of the year, but it was a huge bestseller even before that. It won best novel at Bouchercon, and that was fully deserved.
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Ike Randolph, a Black man with a criminal past, never really accepted his gay son. Neither did Buddy Lee, a white man who also has a criminal past and whose son married Ike's. When their sons are murdered (not in a hate crime), the fathers join forces to try to make up in vengeance for the love they failed to show in life.
Folks like to talk about revenge like it’s a righteous thing but it’s just hate in a nicer suit.
I LOVED this book. I loved it even more than Blacktop Wasteland. It has a lot of similarities - a killer premise, fabulous noir metaphors, and great action sequences - but it's much more emotional and heartbreaking. Ike and Buddy Lee's relationship is fantastic, and the supporting characters (including, in a way, their sons) are vivid. I loved the black comedy of Ike, who owns a landscaping company, using all sorts of landscaping tools to wreak havoc.
Chopping up your first body is disgusting. Your second is tiresome. When you're doing your fifteenth, it's all muscle memory.
Razorblade Tears is sad and funny and violent and thought-provoking and very easy to read, though maybe not in one sitting as it's pretty intense. It takes tropes from pulp fiction and buddy action movies and noir, executes them beautifully so if you like those tropes you'll love what Cosby does with them, and also uses them to tell a wrenching story about grief and love.
Content notes: Violence, a child in danger, gross stuff involving Buddy Lee's lung condition, and depictions of racism, homophobia, and transphobia.
S. A. (Shawn) Cosby was a star at Bouchercon. He's phenomenally charismatic. He said that he wrote the book because a family member who was gay left town as soon as he turned eighteen, because of homophobia from his own family and community. So he wrote this book from the point of view of those other people, in the hope of getting through to them. He felt very comfortable getting inside the shoes of Ike and Buddy Lee, but consulted with gay friends on the portrayal of the gay characters and community.
He said, "I had a version of a scene where a fight breaks out at a gay bar, and in the first draft there's just the two people fighting, and everyone else just stands around shaking their heads in sad disapproval, like monks. I sent it to my friend and he said, 'No man, a brawl at a gay bar is like any barroom brawl.'"
This was one of Barack Obama's 20 favorite books of the year, but it was a huge bestseller even before that. It won best novel at Bouchercon, and that was fully deserved.
[image error] [image error]
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