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Haaskalinnut
Ray Lamar on maksanut jo kovan hinnan rahakkaasta mutta säälimättömästä työstään Coronadon kovimman huumepomon palkollisena: vaimo on kuollut ja ainoa poika vammautunut ja elänyt isoisänsä hoivissa viimeiset kymmenen vuotta. Ray päättää tehdä vielä viimeisen keikan palatakseen kotikylään ja aloittaakseen uuden elämän poikansa kanssa. Uskalias huumeryöstö kilpailevan kartellin kimppuun sujuu suunnitellusti, kunnes ylimielinen ja kokematon rikostoveri tyrii pahan kerran. Liikkeelle lähtee armoton koston vyöry, jossa tyhjenevät alta aikayksikön sekä vallitsevat moraalikäsitykset että haulikon piiput. Hengästyttävä trilleri lännenmaisemissa tulisilla nykyajan mausteilla!
303 pages, Hardcover
First published March 12, 2013
29 people are currently reading
1081 people want to read
About the author
Urban Waite
16 books67 followersUrban Waite is the author of The Terror of Living, named one of Esquire's Ten Best Books of the year. His latest book is The Carrion Birds, an Indie Next Pick and the recipient of starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist. His short fiction has appeared in the Best of the West anthology, the Southern Review, and other journals. He has degrees from the University of Washington, Western Washington University, and Emerson College. He lives in Seattle with his wife.
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March 20, 2025
No Country for Old Middle-Aged Men
Ray Lamar was a drug enforcer, a killer, but ten years ago it went bad, with the Juarez cartel, a rival to his boss, killing his wife and severely damaging his son in a hit-and-run. Ray had left, feeling unable to care for his son, but now he is back, and dreaming of living a legitimate life he has taken on one last job from his old gangster employer, Memo.
[While reading the book, I kept seeing the face of Brooklyn-born Esai Morales as Ray]
Ray's cousin, Tomas Herrera, had been the sheriff of Coronado, NM. But before Ray left, while he was still trying to find and punish the cartel people who had taken out his family, he asked Tomas to look into a local cartel employee, a woman. She wound up dead. Tomas wound up an ex-sheriff. That's a lot to take, even if Tomas always did love and admire his older cousin. How Tom and Ray deal with each other is one of the many fine elements in this excellent novel.
[I see the face of Demian Bichir for Tom]
When Tomas was kicked out of office, he was replaced with a young deputy, a woman he had trained, and liked, Edna Kelly. The mayor wants her to keep Tom away from any sort of police-related activities, but the guy knows his stuff, and she could use the help. That they might have at one point been more than friends adds a level of tension, even though they have moved on.
The baddie in town is Dario Campo. He's the guy who owns a bar in town that does not seem to do a lot of business, but is, somehow, always open. Dario arranges for the transportation of imported product. It is his transport that Ray was sent to heist. Dario is no simple black hat. There is another deep-background baddie, but we will not address him here.
There are enough supporting players to matter but the unheralded co-star is the town of Coronado, New Mexico. In the same way that Jennifer Haigh writes stories that tell the tale of Bakerton, PA (See Baker Towers and News from Heaven: The Bakerton Stories), Waite writes about the slow death of a town. The oil that lit up the local economy years back has been pumped. We see yet another local well lay off it's entire crew. The mayor struggles to keep the town from disintegrating entirely, desperate to keep bad news quiet, much as Mayor Vaughn urged Chief Brody to keep things on the down-low on Amity Island back in the 70s. How many oil towns in the southwest have seen their flames go out as the petro was drained and replaced with a whole lotta nuthin'. It is not just the lives of the main characters that are at stake.
I am at a decided disadvantage here as TCB is my introduction to Waite. Those with exposure to his earlier works will be better able to comment on his actual oeuvre. I gather this one has a lot in common with his last one, but you will have to check other reviewers for consideration of the changes, or consistencies from one book to the next. But we do know that Waite admires some writers and works in particular. He said in a 2011 interview with Powells', I really like Cormac McCarthy though I think it might show too much in my writing. He mentions Blood Meridien as one of his favorite five books. So we can look for the town to get painted red, and it ain't Christmas. Another item that popped to mind was the film There Will Be Blood. It has the obvious relevance of considerable violence in the West, although TWWB had much more to do with oil. In There will be Blood, Daniel Plainview's need for family is foiled when his adopted son, deaf, cannot hear and learn from him. In The Carrion Birds, Ray, who desperately wants to have a normal life after having wandered in the desert for many years, is faced with a son who was damaged as a child and can neither speak nor hear. There will be no happy family ending for him. Unlike Plainview, our guy does not see himself as god-like, but his need for vengeance resonates with Plainview's.
There is a lot in here about greed, revenge and hoping for that which lies beyond reach. In addition to Ray's dream, Tom would like to be sheriff again. And they are not alone in their unlikely desires. We can count on the baddies for greed, and Ray will provides all the revenge we will ever need, both ten years in the past and in the today of the story. Will justice ever be enforced? Can it be? What constitutes justice anyway?
On finishing this book, I had a feeling that it was somehow Shakespearean, more than a western, more than a noir, but had substance that I was feeling, but was unable to articulate. I claim no special knowledge of Shakespeare. Like most of us, I have seen many plays and films, and have read many books that either were Willy's original plays or updated interpretations, but my familiarity is non-academic, of the garden-variety sort. So, I did what anyone in 2013 facing a shortage of knowledge might do, I headed for my internet machine to see what I could see. What I came up with was an ancient (100 yrs old more or less) text by an Oxford don that goes into the details of what it is that constititutes Shakespearean tragedy. I began listing elements, criteria and hoped to be able to come to a firm conclusion based on those. The result? Ah, there's the rub. While many of the elements do fit nicely into this novel, there are others that have to be squeezed in like a stepsister foot into a glass slipper. I am including that list here, but have tucked it under the cover of a spoiler notice, recognizing that it is a sidetrip not everyone will want to take. In order to consider whether the story does or does not conform, one must look at elements that will give far too much away. I have provided spoiler protection within the spoiler to spare those readers who opt to indulge. The book in question is Shakespearean Tragedy - Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lean and Macbeth by one A.C. Bradley, an erstwhile professor of poetry at Oxford. The book is available for free thanks to the Gutenberg project. Clicking on the above title will take you there.
Suffice it to say that, with some reluctance, I am persuaded that Ray's journey qualifies as of the Shakespearean tragic sort. I encourage you to check Bradley's very interesting free book, if the subject pulls you.
The title, The Carrion Birds, seems quite well suited to the story. It is the town that is dying and sundry characters have been picking at the likely corpse for some time. Drug dealers are prime among these, but they are not the only ones. Another view might be that carrion birds are harbingers of death
Bottom line, this is a powerful read, with engaging characters, in all shades of gray, complicated matters under consideration, and a forward momentum that will keep you turning the pages. Dig in.
==========In the summer of 2019 GR reduced the allowable review size by 25%, from 20,000 to 15,000 characters. In order to accommodate the text beyond that I have moved it to the comments section directly below.
Ray Lamar was a drug enforcer, a killer, but ten years ago it went bad, with the Juarez cartel, a rival to his boss, killing his wife and severely damaging his son in a hit-and-run. Ray had left, feeling unable to care for his son, but now he is back, and dreaming of living a legitimate life he has taken on one last job from his old gangster employer, Memo.
Ray had wanted this for so long and never known how to do it, something so simple, a visit to see his son, a new life away from the violence of the last ten years.He wants the payoff from this to tide him over until he can get established, and go legit. The job is supposed to be simple, a heist, yank some H from a truck, at least that was what he was told, but Ray smells a rat. There is more to this assignment than he was told. Blood is spilled and everything goes to hell from there.
[While reading the book, I kept seeing the face of Brooklyn-born Esai Morales as Ray]
Ray's cousin, Tomas Herrera, had been the sheriff of Coronado, NM. But before Ray left, while he was still trying to find and punish the cartel people who had taken out his family, he asked Tomas to look into a local cartel employee, a woman. She wound up dead. Tomas wound up an ex-sheriff. That's a lot to take, even if Tomas always did love and admire his older cousin. How Tom and Ray deal with each other is one of the many fine elements in this excellent novel.
[I see the face of Demian Bichir for Tom]
When Tomas was kicked out of office, he was replaced with a young deputy, a woman he had trained, and liked, Edna Kelly. The mayor wants her to keep Tom away from any sort of police-related activities, but the guy knows his stuff, and she could use the help. That they might have at one point been more than friends adds a level of tension, even though they have moved on.
The baddie in town is Dario Campo. He's the guy who owns a bar in town that does not seem to do a lot of business, but is, somehow, always open. Dario arranges for the transportation of imported product. It is his transport that Ray was sent to heist. Dario is no simple black hat. There is another deep-background baddie, but we will not address him here.
There are enough supporting players to matter but the unheralded co-star is the town of Coronado, New Mexico. In the same way that Jennifer Haigh writes stories that tell the tale of Bakerton, PA (See Baker Towers and News from Heaven: The Bakerton Stories), Waite writes about the slow death of a town. The oil that lit up the local economy years back has been pumped. We see yet another local well lay off it's entire crew. The mayor struggles to keep the town from disintegrating entirely, desperate to keep bad news quiet, much as Mayor Vaughn urged Chief Brody to keep things on the down-low on Amity Island back in the 70s. How many oil towns in the southwest have seen their flames go out as the petro was drained and replaced with a whole lotta nuthin'. It is not just the lives of the main characters that are at stake.
I am at a decided disadvantage here as TCB is my introduction to Waite. Those with exposure to his earlier works will be better able to comment on his actual oeuvre. I gather this one has a lot in common with his last one, but you will have to check other reviewers for consideration of the changes, or consistencies from one book to the next. But we do know that Waite admires some writers and works in particular. He said in a 2011 interview with Powells', I really like Cormac McCarthy though I think it might show too much in my writing. He mentions Blood Meridien as one of his favorite five books. So we can look for the town to get painted red, and it ain't Christmas. Another item that popped to mind was the film There Will Be Blood. It has the obvious relevance of considerable violence in the West, although TWWB had much more to do with oil. In There will be Blood, Daniel Plainview's need for family is foiled when his adopted son, deaf, cannot hear and learn from him. In The Carrion Birds, Ray, who desperately wants to have a normal life after having wandered in the desert for many years, is faced with a son who was damaged as a child and can neither speak nor hear. There will be no happy family ending for him. Unlike Plainview, our guy does not see himself as god-like, but his need for vengeance resonates with Plainview's.
There is a lot in here about greed, revenge and hoping for that which lies beyond reach. In addition to Ray's dream, Tom would like to be sheriff again. And they are not alone in their unlikely desires. We can count on the baddies for greed, and Ray will provides all the revenge we will ever need, both ten years in the past and in the today of the story. Will justice ever be enforced? Can it be? What constitutes justice anyway?
On finishing this book, I had a feeling that it was somehow Shakespearean, more than a western, more than a noir, but had substance that I was feeling, but was unable to articulate. I claim no special knowledge of Shakespeare. Like most of us, I have seen many plays and films, and have read many books that either were Willy's original plays or updated interpretations, but my familiarity is non-academic, of the garden-variety sort. So, I did what anyone in 2013 facing a shortage of knowledge might do, I headed for my internet machine to see what I could see. What I came up with was an ancient (100 yrs old more or less) text by an Oxford don that goes into the details of what it is that constititutes Shakespearean tragedy. I began listing elements, criteria and hoped to be able to come to a firm conclusion based on those. The result? Ah, there's the rub. While many of the elements do fit nicely into this novel, there are others that have to be squeezed in like a stepsister foot into a glass slipper. I am including that list here, but have tucked it under the cover of a spoiler notice, recognizing that it is a sidetrip not everyone will want to take. In order to consider whether the story does or does not conform, one must look at elements that will give far too much away. I have provided spoiler protection within the spoiler to spare those readers who opt to indulge. The book in question is Shakespearean Tragedy - Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lean and Macbeth by one A.C. Bradley, an erstwhile professor of poetry at Oxford. The book is available for free thanks to the Gutenberg project. Clicking on the above title will take you there.
Suffice it to say that, with some reluctance, I am persuaded that Ray's journey qualifies as of the Shakespearean tragic sort. I encourage you to check Bradley's very interesting free book, if the subject pulls you.
The title, The Carrion Birds, seems quite well suited to the story. It is the town that is dying and sundry characters have been picking at the likely corpse for some time. Drug dealers are prime among these, but they are not the only ones. Another view might be that carrion birds are harbingers of death
The thought of death still circling him, as it always did, as it always did, high up like a vulture on the wind.While it is tempting to settle on this, it is worth bearing in mind that this book was published in the UK under the title Dead if I Don't. I do not know why this change was made, and whether it was the author's idea or not, but I think the newer title is definitely a better fit.
Bottom line, this is a powerful read, with engaging characters, in all shades of gray, complicated matters under consideration, and a forward momentum that will keep you turning the pages. Dig in.
==========In the summer of 2019 GR reduced the allowable review size by 25%, from 20,000 to 15,000 characters. In order to accommodate the text beyond that I have moved it to the comments section directly below.
May 16, 2024
I wish that road had bent another way.
- Daniel Woodrell, Tomato Red
How terrible for a person to know what he could have been. How he could have gone on. But instead having to live along being nothing, and know he is just going to die and that's the end of it.
- Oakley Hall, Warlock
The Carrion Birds is the second book written by Urban Waite. The UK title for this story is Dead If I Don't (The Carrion Birds and Dead If I Don't are the exact same novel with different titles). The haunting, poetic writing found in The Carrion Birds is equally magnificent to the author's debut novel, The Terror of Living, though I found The Carrion Birds story somewhat less intriguing.
After finally experiencing The Terror of Living in 2022, I felt I hit the jackpot by finding an audiobook edition of another Urban Waite novel. The author is great at choosing titles! The Terror of Living, Sometimes the Wolf, The Carrion Birds. I'll have to eventually read the sequel to The Terror or Living, Sometimes the Wolf, even though I don't have an audiobook currently available to assist me.
Read for the second time in 2024. I think my love for the book waned quite a bit on this second reading. I contemplated reducing the rating and donating the book to my neighborhood Little Free Library, but after reading my original thoughts, I might hold on to it. This was a tough one to find on old school audio CD.
Favorite Passages:
"You ready to have some fun?" Memo said.
"Define ready."
Memo's voice cracked and Ray imagined the smirk already formed on the man's face. "I thought all you old guys woke before the sun came up."
"I'm not one of those 'old guys,'" Ray said.
"Relax," Memo said. "It's a compliment."
"Yeah? Define compliment."
______
"The last guy who tried to pull what we're about to pull had both hands skinned wrist to fingertips. They say Dario keeps them in his desk and wears them around like gloves when the weather turns cold."
______
Ray let him speak, let him get it out. It was what Ray knew he'd want when the time came for him, when he had his final say and tried to make right with the world. When he tried to tell how he'd gotten down this path, and how he regretted it every day, but didn't know how to turn back.
_______
"You know he's playing crooked with all of us? I worked for his father, too. A long time ago, before you even came around, but Memo is something different. He doesn't respect the old ways - doesn't respect anything anymore." He stopped to gather his breath before going on again, pink spittle showing in the corners of his mouth. "There used to be rules for this sort of thing. Memo's father knew them, but it's not like it used to be, not anymore."
_______
Looking out on the land that sat before him, rolling hills populated by creosote and burro bush, the mountains to the east and north scraped clean to their rocky surface, he was aware that he had lived a life complete in itself before this one. And that he was now left here in a sort of afterlife of his own making, which he shared with the memory of his wife, alone.
_______
How easily that plan had slipped out from under him. How easy it seemed for his life to slip from one thing into the other.
He knew, too, that in this new life, there was an emptiness to his actions, a hopelessness that had come with his time away, carried along beside him like a parasite in the skin. Never to be satisfied in this world or the next, and that would keep him going until he might fill that hole, bored through from one side to the other.
_______
It was already late enough in the day that the sun began to stretch the shadows long and thin across the parking lot, constructing a stilted world that teetered toward the point of falling.
_______
"At one time there was me," Ray said. "And then there was me, but there was a little less of me, you understand?" I don't know how to get that piece back."
_______
He walked out into the darkness, the rain becoming only a feeling on his skin, unseen and constant as the wind or the air.
_______
When his breath came back to him, it came in a surge - all at once - like someone surfacing from the depths into air. His lungs hungry for the world above and his pupils dilated black and wide, as if coming into light from a great darkness. He fell back with a hand held out for support on the fireplace behind. The flash of memory shifting across his vision like a slide reel, image after image from a life now completely lost to him. His wife standing on the courthouse steps, the birth of their child, their first night in the new house outside of Coronado, the call of sirens before the knock came on his door, the wreckage of his wife's car and the black scrape of tires across asphalt that would never make sense to him.
_______
But there it was, rooted into him, and now spun loose, bobbing around through his insides. All of it heavy in his mind, big as a tree pulled green and full from the bank and strangely alive as it went on down the river.
_______
Through the department windows, Tom heard a distant sound he couldn't quite figure. Something like a wrecking ball tearing through cement and rebar, metal on stone. Stepping close to the window, he stared out into the night, his reflection looking back at him out of the pane. The echo hanging in the air for a moment before all went silent again. He turned from the window, watching as his ghost turned away as well.
_______
Looking up at the sun now slowly beginning to set beyond the western hills, Ray estimated the time. Never enough time. Everything running out on him and a world he'd long since pushed away now collapsing all around him. He tried to remember how he'd felt all those years before, when life had seemed so figured out and solid. What had he thought? Who had he been? The image of himself all those years ago nothing but a paper cutout of a man that seemed to bend now with the wind.
_______
Ray saw the red glow of the oil fire where it lay flat and orange as an eclipse along the horizon, all of it dark in the night and the thin band of light where the well burned. Ray drove his father's truck, the harsh smell of oil allover his hands and the deep carbon scent of fire floating around in the cab.
- Daniel Woodrell, Tomato Red
How terrible for a person to know what he could have been. How he could have gone on. But instead having to live along being nothing, and know he is just going to die and that's the end of it.
- Oakley Hall, Warlock
The Carrion Birds is the second book written by Urban Waite. The UK title for this story is Dead If I Don't (The Carrion Birds and Dead If I Don't are the exact same novel with different titles). The haunting, poetic writing found in The Carrion Birds is equally magnificent to the author's debut novel, The Terror of Living, though I found The Carrion Birds story somewhat less intriguing.
After finally experiencing The Terror of Living in 2022, I felt I hit the jackpot by finding an audiobook edition of another Urban Waite novel. The author is great at choosing titles! The Terror of Living, Sometimes the Wolf, The Carrion Birds. I'll have to eventually read the sequel to The Terror or Living, Sometimes the Wolf, even though I don't have an audiobook currently available to assist me.
Read for the second time in 2024. I think my love for the book waned quite a bit on this second reading. I contemplated reducing the rating and donating the book to my neighborhood Little Free Library, but after reading my original thoughts, I might hold on to it. This was a tough one to find on old school audio CD.
Favorite Passages:
"You ready to have some fun?" Memo said.
"Define ready."
Memo's voice cracked and Ray imagined the smirk already formed on the man's face. "I thought all you old guys woke before the sun came up."
"I'm not one of those 'old guys,'" Ray said.
"Relax," Memo said. "It's a compliment."
"Yeah? Define compliment."
______
"The last guy who tried to pull what we're about to pull had both hands skinned wrist to fingertips. They say Dario keeps them in his desk and wears them around like gloves when the weather turns cold."
______
Ray let him speak, let him get it out. It was what Ray knew he'd want when the time came for him, when he had his final say and tried to make right with the world. When he tried to tell how he'd gotten down this path, and how he regretted it every day, but didn't know how to turn back.
_______
"You know he's playing crooked with all of us? I worked for his father, too. A long time ago, before you even came around, but Memo is something different. He doesn't respect the old ways - doesn't respect anything anymore." He stopped to gather his breath before going on again, pink spittle showing in the corners of his mouth. "There used to be rules for this sort of thing. Memo's father knew them, but it's not like it used to be, not anymore."
_______
Looking out on the land that sat before him, rolling hills populated by creosote and burro bush, the mountains to the east and north scraped clean to their rocky surface, he was aware that he had lived a life complete in itself before this one. And that he was now left here in a sort of afterlife of his own making, which he shared with the memory of his wife, alone.
_______
How easily that plan had slipped out from under him. How easy it seemed for his life to slip from one thing into the other.
He knew, too, that in this new life, there was an emptiness to his actions, a hopelessness that had come with his time away, carried along beside him like a parasite in the skin. Never to be satisfied in this world or the next, and that would keep him going until he might fill that hole, bored through from one side to the other.
_______
It was already late enough in the day that the sun began to stretch the shadows long and thin across the parking lot, constructing a stilted world that teetered toward the point of falling.
_______
"At one time there was me," Ray said. "And then there was me, but there was a little less of me, you understand?" I don't know how to get that piece back."
_______
He walked out into the darkness, the rain becoming only a feeling on his skin, unseen and constant as the wind or the air.
_______
When his breath came back to him, it came in a surge - all at once - like someone surfacing from the depths into air. His lungs hungry for the world above and his pupils dilated black and wide, as if coming into light from a great darkness. He fell back with a hand held out for support on the fireplace behind. The flash of memory shifting across his vision like a slide reel, image after image from a life now completely lost to him. His wife standing on the courthouse steps, the birth of their child, their first night in the new house outside of Coronado, the call of sirens before the knock came on his door, the wreckage of his wife's car and the black scrape of tires across asphalt that would never make sense to him.
_______
But there it was, rooted into him, and now spun loose, bobbing around through his insides. All of it heavy in his mind, big as a tree pulled green and full from the bank and strangely alive as it went on down the river.
_______
Through the department windows, Tom heard a distant sound he couldn't quite figure. Something like a wrecking ball tearing through cement and rebar, metal on stone. Stepping close to the window, he stared out into the night, his reflection looking back at him out of the pane. The echo hanging in the air for a moment before all went silent again. He turned from the window, watching as his ghost turned away as well.
_______
Looking up at the sun now slowly beginning to set beyond the western hills, Ray estimated the time. Never enough time. Everything running out on him and a world he'd long since pushed away now collapsing all around him. He tried to remember how he'd felt all those years before, when life had seemed so figured out and solid. What had he thought? Who had he been? The image of himself all those years ago nothing but a paper cutout of a man that seemed to bend now with the wind.
_______
Ray saw the red glow of the oil fire where it lay flat and orange as an eclipse along the horizon, all of it dark in the night and the thin band of light where the well burned. Ray drove his father's truck, the harsh smell of oil allover his hands and the deep carbon scent of fire floating around in the cab.
November 7, 2014
In this second book of his he has successfully penned a tale in the tradition of No Country for Old Men a western noir, a desert plain blood drenched by a hired killer.
I enjoyed this story more than his debut The Terror of Living, his prose and characters have you hooked right until the curtain drops.
Think No Country for Old Men with a bit more humanity and likeability in the main protagonist.
The setting for this blood soaked western tale is a town Coronado, This was home once for Ray our main character and as he returns, the past life of his, the before, the time when he tried to be a family man all came flooding back in painful memories and realization on the things he left behind, before he took up being a lethal hired killer working mostly for a drug cartel cleaning up shop in towns, around plains, and Coronado is the next stop under the big mans instructions.
His killing business and his past is a lethal mix and with family in the balance I am sure this is one job that Ray would have set back time and left his family turf alone. Alas this very capable author puts us in the mix as the tale unwinds you will be witness to a grand finale a showdown that has many lives at stake.
He has a cousin Tom, was a sheriff but now retired, they shared many adventures together in their youth, once as sheriff he put his neck on the line to save Rays ass.
One was upholding the law the other breaking it. Tom finds himself deputized to help out with all the dead bodies turning up and soon finds himself in a dilemma with great decisions to make.
Ray before he took up the gun and left Coronado for the first time, he had fled away from his kin, his responsibility, after the tragic death of his wife he no longer could cope with his autistic son so left him behind, his son his father and his cousin.
In some way Ray hopes in his deepest self that some wounds could be mended on his return but his conduct of business is the killer of any repairs or bridges in repairing the past.
I am happy to certify that Stephen King was right that this one was even better than his first in his saying, “A hell of a good novel, relentlessly paced and beautifully narrated. This is good. I bet the next one will be even better,” and the praises he mentioned for the debut novel are just as much right for this great western noir tale with slice of humanity penned by Urban Waite.
“He knew, too, that in this new life, there was an emptiness to his actions, a hopelessness that had come with his time away, carried along beside him like a parasite in the skin. Never to be satisfied in this world or the next, and that would keep him going until he might fill that hole, bored through from one side to the other. For which he felt, sitting there on the porch looking back at Coronado, he would never find fulfillment. It had made the killing of that old man in the hills outside town all the easier.”
"When his breath came back to him. it came all at once—like someone surfacing from the depths into air. His lungs hungry tor the world above and his pupils dilated black and wide, as if coming into light from a great darkness. He fell back with a hand held out for support on the fireplace behind. The flash of memory shifting across his vision like a slide reel, image after image from a life completely lost to him. His wife standing on the courthouse steps, the birth of their child, their first night in the new house outside of Coronado, the call of sirens before the knock came on his door, the wreckage of his wife's car and the black scrape of tires across asphalt that would never make sense to Him. Where was Billy? A desperate need to know now rose all the way through him. Where was his son?"
“He didn’t know what he hoped for. Ray had shot a deputy, he’d murdered more than ten men, and he was out there still. All of it went against anything Tom could ever accept as a peace officer. But Ray was his cousin, a month older than him, and they’d been like twins once, growing up together and thinking for the longest time that they would always consider Coronado home. Now, Tom didn’t know how he felt, and he rode north."
Review also @ http://more2read.com/review/the-carrion-birds-by-urban-waite/
I enjoyed this story more than his debut The Terror of Living, his prose and characters have you hooked right until the curtain drops.
Think No Country for Old Men with a bit more humanity and likeability in the main protagonist.
The setting for this blood soaked western tale is a town Coronado, This was home once for Ray our main character and as he returns, the past life of his, the before, the time when he tried to be a family man all came flooding back in painful memories and realization on the things he left behind, before he took up being a lethal hired killer working mostly for a drug cartel cleaning up shop in towns, around plains, and Coronado is the next stop under the big mans instructions.
His killing business and his past is a lethal mix and with family in the balance I am sure this is one job that Ray would have set back time and left his family turf alone. Alas this very capable author puts us in the mix as the tale unwinds you will be witness to a grand finale a showdown that has many lives at stake.
He has a cousin Tom, was a sheriff but now retired, they shared many adventures together in their youth, once as sheriff he put his neck on the line to save Rays ass.
One was upholding the law the other breaking it. Tom finds himself deputized to help out with all the dead bodies turning up and soon finds himself in a dilemma with great decisions to make.
Ray before he took up the gun and left Coronado for the first time, he had fled away from his kin, his responsibility, after the tragic death of his wife he no longer could cope with his autistic son so left him behind, his son his father and his cousin.
In some way Ray hopes in his deepest self that some wounds could be mended on his return but his conduct of business is the killer of any repairs or bridges in repairing the past.
I am happy to certify that Stephen King was right that this one was even better than his first in his saying, “A hell of a good novel, relentlessly paced and beautifully narrated. This is good. I bet the next one will be even better,” and the praises he mentioned for the debut novel are just as much right for this great western noir tale with slice of humanity penned by Urban Waite.
“He knew, too, that in this new life, there was an emptiness to his actions, a hopelessness that had come with his time away, carried along beside him like a parasite in the skin. Never to be satisfied in this world or the next, and that would keep him going until he might fill that hole, bored through from one side to the other. For which he felt, sitting there on the porch looking back at Coronado, he would never find fulfillment. It had made the killing of that old man in the hills outside town all the easier.”
"When his breath came back to him. it came all at once—like someone surfacing from the depths into air. His lungs hungry tor the world above and his pupils dilated black and wide, as if coming into light from a great darkness. He fell back with a hand held out for support on the fireplace behind. The flash of memory shifting across his vision like a slide reel, image after image from a life completely lost to him. His wife standing on the courthouse steps, the birth of their child, their first night in the new house outside of Coronado, the call of sirens before the knock came on his door, the wreckage of his wife's car and the black scrape of tires across asphalt that would never make sense to Him. Where was Billy? A desperate need to know now rose all the way through him. Where was his son?"
“He didn’t know what he hoped for. Ray had shot a deputy, he’d murdered more than ten men, and he was out there still. All of it went against anything Tom could ever accept as a peace officer. But Ray was his cousin, a month older than him, and they’d been like twins once, growing up together and thinking for the longest time that they would always consider Coronado home. Now, Tom didn’t know how he felt, and he rode north."
Review also @ http://more2read.com/review/the-carrion-birds-by-urban-waite/
May 5, 2013
I'd rate this 4.5 stars.
There are thrillers where you haven't a clue what is going to happen, ones that keep you guessing until far into the story, if not until the end. And then there are those in which you can pretty much figure out most of what will happen, sometimes early on into the book. While the latter type of book might not seem too exciting to read, in the hands of a talented author, it can be just as compelling (if not more so) than the former. Urban Waite's The Carrion Birds definitely follows that example, but his storytelling ability and the richness of his characters keep you flipping the pages (literally or metaphorically) so you can see how the story will resolve itself.
Ray Lamar used to be an oilman in the small New Mexico town of Coronado, until his father's wells ran dry. With no real prospect of income, and a wife and young son, he turned to a less savory way of life as a hired gun for a local crime lord, which brought him into the sights of a dangerous Mexican drug cartel and visited unspeakable tragedy upon his family, also causing his cousin Tom to lose his job as the town's sheriff.
After 10 years of hiding out, Ray is ready to move on with his life and finally see his now 12-year-old son again. He agrees to take one more job, because it will bring him back to Coronado, a town now in severe economic decline. But from the very beginning, nothing about this job goes the way it is supposed to, and Ray finds himself being sucked further and further into a maelstrom that he desperately wants to escape. His return to Coronado opens up a number of old wounds, and brings his cousin face-to-face with those who took his job away 10 years before, and those who resolutely tried to defend him.
As you might guess from the title alone, The Carrion Birds is a bleak book, but it is never morose or heavy-handed. In less than 300 pages, Urban Waite does a terrific job drawing his characters and providing their back stories, as well as pulling you along on the trajectories they might follow. While you may know how the whole story will resolve itself, it is a testament to Waite's talent as a writer that you don't care if there are few surprises, because the narrative is well-written, the drama is palpable, and the action flows tremendously well. I've seen some reviews of the book which liken it to No Country for Old Men, and while it does share that book's bleak tone, this is a book with a style all its own, although Waite's ability to evoke the settings of his novel reminded me a little of the excellent James Lee Burke.
This is a thriller which might not shock or dazzle you, but it certainly will thrill you, as much for the way it is written as for its plot. And definitely check out Waite's first novel, the equally bleak The Terror of Living, as well.
There are thrillers where you haven't a clue what is going to happen, ones that keep you guessing until far into the story, if not until the end. And then there are those in which you can pretty much figure out most of what will happen, sometimes early on into the book. While the latter type of book might not seem too exciting to read, in the hands of a talented author, it can be just as compelling (if not more so) than the former. Urban Waite's The Carrion Birds definitely follows that example, but his storytelling ability and the richness of his characters keep you flipping the pages (literally or metaphorically) so you can see how the story will resolve itself.
Ray Lamar used to be an oilman in the small New Mexico town of Coronado, until his father's wells ran dry. With no real prospect of income, and a wife and young son, he turned to a less savory way of life as a hired gun for a local crime lord, which brought him into the sights of a dangerous Mexican drug cartel and visited unspeakable tragedy upon his family, also causing his cousin Tom to lose his job as the town's sheriff.
After 10 years of hiding out, Ray is ready to move on with his life and finally see his now 12-year-old son again. He agrees to take one more job, because it will bring him back to Coronado, a town now in severe economic decline. But from the very beginning, nothing about this job goes the way it is supposed to, and Ray finds himself being sucked further and further into a maelstrom that he desperately wants to escape. His return to Coronado opens up a number of old wounds, and brings his cousin face-to-face with those who took his job away 10 years before, and those who resolutely tried to defend him.
As you might guess from the title alone, The Carrion Birds is a bleak book, but it is never morose or heavy-handed. In less than 300 pages, Urban Waite does a terrific job drawing his characters and providing their back stories, as well as pulling you along on the trajectories they might follow. While you may know how the whole story will resolve itself, it is a testament to Waite's talent as a writer that you don't care if there are few surprises, because the narrative is well-written, the drama is palpable, and the action flows tremendously well. I've seen some reviews of the book which liken it to No Country for Old Men, and while it does share that book's bleak tone, this is a book with a style all its own, although Waite's ability to evoke the settings of his novel reminded me a little of the excellent James Lee Burke.
This is a thriller which might not shock or dazzle you, but it certainly will thrill you, as much for the way it is written as for its plot. And definitely check out Waite's first novel, the equally bleak The Terror of Living, as well.
February 22, 2013
As in Waite’s debut novel, THE TERROR OF LIVING, the law and the outlaw square off, complicated by a past that links two adversaries together. In both books, there are common themes and figures that propel the action. The lawman has dents in his goodness, and the outlaw has goodness in his dents. However, the first book has more of an infrastructure, and the entangled subterfuge between the two sides of the law give the reader more to chew on. CARRION BIRDS had more style than substance.
Most of novel takes place in or near Coronado, a quiet, economically depressed New Mexico town at the border of Mexico, where some people know your name, your address, and your skeletons. It’s dry, dusty, desert.
Ray Lamar is a legend in the Southwest underworld, a stringy, melancholy widower with the proverbial one last job to do before he pulls out for good, wipes his hands clean, and reunites with his young son. He’ll steal some stash for his boss, return to Coronado, and start a new life.
Redemption. Hope. Desire. Be a good dad, forge a new future, and bury the tragedies of the past. But…It don’t come easy. You know it don’t come easy. That last job gets botched. Blood stands out on the dingy landscape. Bodies pile up; morals waver; hope is a four-letter word. "The thought of death still circling him, as it always did, high up like a vulture on the wind."
The tragic death of Ray’s wife left a lot of living victims in its wake. His son, Billy, deaf and mute since the day his mother died in front of him. And Ray’s cousin, Tom Herrera, the ex-sheriff, who is equal parts hollow and shame since turning in his badge ten years ago. Ray’s father is now father to Ray’s boy. Things were quiet, until Ray decided to try and come home with ten years of blood on his hands.
Urban Waite can set a mood and tone as shadowy and ethereal as Cormac McCarthy. However, where he didn’t succeed is in giving the reader fertile characters. Ray is especially uninteresting, unlike the main outlaw in TERROR OF LIVING. What you see is what you get—a pathetic scumbag with nothing to mitigate his loser qualities as a human being. He wants. He wants. And Tom, who you root for, doesn’t root for himself enough, and after a while you just want to pity him.
If you like a blood bath—or two or three, you will get a tub’s worth. And a lot of other rank characters, as well as a brave and honest lady sheriff, a few geezers, some drunks, and other local color. To me, it seemed like Waite was experimenting in style, but the story was flaccid. No mercurial characters like in the first book, which I really missed. I trust that he will animate his next novel with some buoyant flesh to go with all that blood.
Most of novel takes place in or near Coronado, a quiet, economically depressed New Mexico town at the border of Mexico, where some people know your name, your address, and your skeletons. It’s dry, dusty, desert.
Ray Lamar is a legend in the Southwest underworld, a stringy, melancholy widower with the proverbial one last job to do before he pulls out for good, wipes his hands clean, and reunites with his young son. He’ll steal some stash for his boss, return to Coronado, and start a new life.
Redemption. Hope. Desire. Be a good dad, forge a new future, and bury the tragedies of the past. But…It don’t come easy. You know it don’t come easy. That last job gets botched. Blood stands out on the dingy landscape. Bodies pile up; morals waver; hope is a four-letter word. "The thought of death still circling him, as it always did, high up like a vulture on the wind."
The tragic death of Ray’s wife left a lot of living victims in its wake. His son, Billy, deaf and mute since the day his mother died in front of him. And Ray’s cousin, Tom Herrera, the ex-sheriff, who is equal parts hollow and shame since turning in his badge ten years ago. Ray’s father is now father to Ray’s boy. Things were quiet, until Ray decided to try and come home with ten years of blood on his hands.
Urban Waite can set a mood and tone as shadowy and ethereal as Cormac McCarthy. However, where he didn’t succeed is in giving the reader fertile characters. Ray is especially uninteresting, unlike the main outlaw in TERROR OF LIVING. What you see is what you get—a pathetic scumbag with nothing to mitigate his loser qualities as a human being. He wants. He wants. And Tom, who you root for, doesn’t root for himself enough, and after a while you just want to pity him.
If you like a blood bath—or two or three, you will get a tub’s worth. And a lot of other rank characters, as well as a brave and honest lady sheriff, a few geezers, some drunks, and other local color. To me, it seemed like Waite was experimenting in style, but the story was flaccid. No mercurial characters like in the first book, which I really missed. I trust that he will animate his next novel with some buoyant flesh to go with all that blood.
November 27, 2012
This literary thriller and modern western, The Carrion Birds by Urban Waite, works because the literary part is mostly short descriptive phrases and a penchant for partial sentences. Whereas many thrillers are nonsensical chases in outlandish circumstances, The Carrion Birds presents real characters with human motivations and vulnerabilities in the realistic setting of New Mexican desert and scrubland where one last job will allow Ray Lamar to abandon his life of violence. The simple job goes awry because the rules of the game have changed.
I recommend this book to anyone who doesn’t mind violence and doesn’t have a plane to catch—I almost missed my connection while reading this book.
I recommend this book to anyone who doesn’t mind violence and doesn’t have a plane to catch—I almost missed my connection while reading this book.
January 5, 2013
The Carrion Birds by Urban Waite 9780062216885
Urban Waite has a talent for writing taut, violent novels with intelligent, nuanced plots and flawed but intriguing characters. What would you do for your brother? Tom took a tragic action that cost him his career and his peace of mind for his brother Ray. What would you do to avenge your dead wife? Ray gave up his way of life, his child, and his home to become a hired gun in the aftermath of his wife’s death. It has been a long time; Ray is coming back to Coronado, New Mexico. He doesn’t want to be a hired gun working for thugs anymore; he wants to find out if he can have a relationship with the son he abandoned. It will take one more big score to set him up with enough cash to live comfortably. His return sets in motion cataclysmic events that leave no one untouched. Gorgeous writing, the sere desert landscape, and characters that grab life by the neck keep the pages flying by to the very end.
Urban Waite has a talent for writing taut, violent novels with intelligent, nuanced plots and flawed but intriguing characters. What would you do for your brother? Tom took a tragic action that cost him his career and his peace of mind for his brother Ray. What would you do to avenge your dead wife? Ray gave up his way of life, his child, and his home to become a hired gun in the aftermath of his wife’s death. It has been a long time; Ray is coming back to Coronado, New Mexico. He doesn’t want to be a hired gun working for thugs anymore; he wants to find out if he can have a relationship with the son he abandoned. It will take one more big score to set him up with enough cash to live comfortably. His return sets in motion cataclysmic events that leave no one untouched. Gorgeous writing, the sere desert landscape, and characters that grab life by the neck keep the pages flying by to the very end.
November 30, 2020
Pros: Modern-day western, unpredictable plot, found myself rooting for characters who were bad people
Cons: Shallow character development, descriptions of the landscape and scenery that didn't add as much to mood as I would have liked, the same plot points would be repeated like 8 times?? (ex: characters constantly saying their motivations aloud or returning to the same memories / flashbacks)
Do any of my Goodreads friends like westerns? Or is this something I only share with my Mom...? Comment below if you want to get a western crew together.
Cons: Shallow character development, descriptions of the landscape and scenery that didn't add as much to mood as I would have liked, the same plot points would be repeated like 8 times?? (ex: characters constantly saying their motivations aloud or returning to the same memories / flashbacks)
Do any of my Goodreads friends like westerns? Or is this something I only share with my Mom...? Comment below if you want to get a western crew together.
February 7, 2013
"The Carrion Birds" by Urban Waite chronicles four days in the life of reluctant 'gun-for-hire' Ray Lamar. Ten years after a suspicious car accident kills his wife and leaves his young son disabled, Ray agrees to one final assignment to be carried out in his hometown of Coronado, New Mexico. His hope is to put an end to the life he has been leading and reconnect with his family and to make amends to his son, Billy, who he has not seen since the loss of his wife.
Unfortunately, his appearance and the resulting mayhem have the complete opposite effect. Ray ends up dragging his father and uncle, once oil tycoons, now working for area ranchers since the oil wells ran dry, into his sinister world. Most affected is his cousin, Tom, once Sheriff of Coronado. Tom was removed as Sheriff due to events Ray had put in motion ten years earlier.
This is not the type of book I would normally pick up at the library or bookstore, but I found it powerful and fast-paced. It was so good I delayed reading the last chapter because I just didn't want it to end. Very good read and I will seek out more from Mr. Waite in the future.
Unfortunately, his appearance and the resulting mayhem have the complete opposite effect. Ray ends up dragging his father and uncle, once oil tycoons, now working for area ranchers since the oil wells ran dry, into his sinister world. Most affected is his cousin, Tom, once Sheriff of Coronado. Tom was removed as Sheriff due to events Ray had put in motion ten years earlier.
This is not the type of book I would normally pick up at the library or bookstore, but I found it powerful and fast-paced. It was so good I delayed reading the last chapter because I just didn't want it to end. Very good read and I will seek out more from Mr. Waite in the future.
February 16, 2013
This was my first win on First Reads. This is really out of my normal zone and not a book that I would normally gravitate toward. I completed this book in two sessions. If I didn't have to work, I would have completed in one session. This is a true noir western. I had to keep looking at the picture of the author because it's hard to believe how young he is to have written such a graphic, frightening western type book that is impossible to put down! The genre reminded me of "No Country For Old Men" and it was hard, sometimes to read, I had to keep catching my breath before I could go on. I have to recommend this book as a must read. I will be ordering Mr. Waite's first book, The Terror of Living because I think he will be one of my new favorite authors.
May 30, 2013
Somewhat disappointing follow up to The Terror Of Living. I liked what was there for the most part but there just wasn't much there. The theme of failed redemption was constantly shoved in the readers face by repetitive narrative and dialogue, and the dialogue at times was a bit stilted. The book had a nice, hard edge to it but it just seemed to be lacking in character development and plot. Would probably have given it 2.5 stars if I could. Not bad but not noteworthy, either. Hoping for a stronger effort next time from Waite.
March 6, 2013
This book is a strange and surprising combination of starkly lovely writing and fast-paced action. Reading through I couldn't help but compare it to Breaking Bad: the showcase of human drama against the beautiful background of the Southwest, the relationship between reluctant mentor and cocky kid, the escalating toll of violence, the contrasting ties between loyalty and law. Waite's protagonist is, however, much more sympathetic than Walter White, while still managing to be pretty badass.
May 22, 2015
A nicely paced "thriller" that reminded me of Wiley Cash's writing. Instead of the South we have the West with troubled souls: two cousins whose decisions are interlinked and have set them on paths of self destruction. This book is one train wreck from start to finish and the body count keeps going up but Waite keeps you guessing. It also reminded me of Cormac McCarthy's "No Country for Old Men" with its tragedy and pervasive sense of futility of the main characters.
July 5, 2013
The Carrion Birds By Urban Waite I won this book through Goodreads. The thought was that this was the last time for moving the drugs; then there will be enough money for me and my son. The plans went bad, when runners were killed and the main character was wounded as he was trying to get back to his old home.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 5, 2013
Fast -paced page turner full of the beauty of the hills of New Mexico, the drug cartel and a man who couldn't seem to find his way out of life of "wrongs". A story of vengeance, violence and contrition that I thoroughly enjoyed from the first page.
April 26, 2018
I'm old enough to remember when sentences were complete. They had Subjects & Objects, Nouns and Verbs. . . .all that stuff.
There may be a story in here somewhere, but this was a hearty DNF for me.
There may be a story in here somewhere, but this was a hearty DNF for me.
April 26, 2013
I won a copy thru Booktrib.
April 14, 2023
Read in 2013. A soulful tale of violence, vengeance and contrition. Another 4 star from 2013.
March 4, 2017
3.5 stars. Good story. Its well written and set in NM!
May 1, 2018
The book derivative, slow, boring.
New Mexico vistas. Not much else.
Sentence fragments infuriating.
The book unfinished.
New Mexico vistas. Not much else.
Sentence fragments infuriating.
The book unfinished.
March 18, 2025
nic
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 16, 2015
Mysterious Book Report No. 116
by John Dwaine McKenna
A lot of folks in America don’t seem to be aware of it, or maybe they just don’t care since it’s not on their front stoop, but a war unlike any we’ve ever had is raging inside our nation. It’s called the War on Drugs . . . and we’re losing it. Certain parts of our cities are the scenes of daily urban combat between different gangs competing for drug territory. The focal point of the entire war however, is in the American southwest, along the California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas boarders. There, in small towns close to the Mexican border, law enforcement officials are under constant pressure and threat from the four major Mexican drug cartels who now have heavily armed armies of battle-hardened soldiers ready to do their bidding. It’s where we find ourselves in this week’s Mysterious Book Report.
The Carrion Birds (Wm Morrow, $25.99, 265 pages, ISBN 978-0-06-221688-5) by Urban Waite, picks up in New Mexico where Cormac McCarthy left off in Texas with No Country For Old Men.
In The Carrion Birds, Ray Lamar is a drug enforcer who’s been at it since his wife was killed in a hit-and-run accident that also left his infant son with permanent brain damage and unable to speak. He’s been away from his home and family for ten long years. Now he wants to quit and return to the small southern New Mexico town he grew up in. He agrees to do one last, ‘easy’ job near his hometown for Memo, the drug lord he’s put all his army special operations training to work for. An easy job. Sure. Easy that is, until the killing starts. Killings that will put Ray in conflict with Tom, his closest friend, a man he grew up with, who’s like a brother, as well as Edna, the home town Sheriff with a three-man police force that’s outmanned and outgunned by the cartel, a few miles away in Mexico. This one is fast and furious, action-packed and relentless in it’s pacing and as bloody as anything William Shakespeare ever wrote. If you like action, adventure and criminals galore, pick up a copy today. You’ll soon see what life is like along our southern border. It’s scary as hell. You’ve been warned!
www.Facebook.com/JohnDwaineMcKenna
www.Goodreads.com/JohnDwaineMcKenna
by John Dwaine McKenna
A lot of folks in America don’t seem to be aware of it, or maybe they just don’t care since it’s not on their front stoop, but a war unlike any we’ve ever had is raging inside our nation. It’s called the War on Drugs . . . and we’re losing it. Certain parts of our cities are the scenes of daily urban combat between different gangs competing for drug territory. The focal point of the entire war however, is in the American southwest, along the California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas boarders. There, in small towns close to the Mexican border, law enforcement officials are under constant pressure and threat from the four major Mexican drug cartels who now have heavily armed armies of battle-hardened soldiers ready to do their bidding. It’s where we find ourselves in this week’s Mysterious Book Report.
The Carrion Birds (Wm Morrow, $25.99, 265 pages, ISBN 978-0-06-221688-5) by Urban Waite, picks up in New Mexico where Cormac McCarthy left off in Texas with No Country For Old Men.
In The Carrion Birds, Ray Lamar is a drug enforcer who’s been at it since his wife was killed in a hit-and-run accident that also left his infant son with permanent brain damage and unable to speak. He’s been away from his home and family for ten long years. Now he wants to quit and return to the small southern New Mexico town he grew up in. He agrees to do one last, ‘easy’ job near his hometown for Memo, the drug lord he’s put all his army special operations training to work for. An easy job. Sure. Easy that is, until the killing starts. Killings that will put Ray in conflict with Tom, his closest friend, a man he grew up with, who’s like a brother, as well as Edna, the home town Sheriff with a three-man police force that’s outmanned and outgunned by the cartel, a few miles away in Mexico. This one is fast and furious, action-packed and relentless in it’s pacing and as bloody as anything William Shakespeare ever wrote. If you like action, adventure and criminals galore, pick up a copy today. You’ll soon see what life is like along our southern border. It’s scary as hell. You’ve been warned!
www.Facebook.com/JohnDwaineMcKenna
www.Goodreads.com/JohnDwaineMcKenna
July 3, 2016
I received this book in a Goodreads giveaway (kind of a long time ago actually... whoops).
Okay so honestly I got 12 pages in and had to stop. I have nothing against the story itself I don't think? Not up to that point anyway. I'm sure the plot, etc. is fine. It's the writing style itself I just couldn't take anymore..
There are SO many sentence fragments. Um. I don't know if that's the correct term. Incomplete sentences? Or maybe I just mean confusing sentences. I'll just give some examples because I'm totally blanking here:
"Ray with no real idea what to expect."
"All that more than ten years ago, since he'd taken the job with Memo."
"No work anywhere in the valley and Ray with a real need to put away some money."
"The chalk-dry mouth that went along with his drinking."
"The mirror grown heavy with steam, obscuring the round face that looked back at him."
"The close cut of his hair outlining his thick eyebrows and muscled Mexican face."
You get the idea. In the first 10 pages alone, there are at least 25 sentences like that.
See the thing is, with me personally... when I read a sentence that doesn't make sense, isn't quite a sentence, is confusing, etc. my mind is like "Whoa hold up a minute, what?" And I have to go back and re-read the sentence. So with this book, I was doing that crazy often and it was becoming tedious and time-consuming. It was becoming super distracting from the story itself and I found I could barely follow along.
Like, I actually ended up checking to see if this book was originally written in another language and just happened to be relatively poorly translated. As far as I can tell, that's not the case. Anyone is more than welcome to correct me if I'm wrong about that.
I WILL say right now that this could just be me. Maybe other people like the writing style. I mean, there's even a quote from Stephen King on the front cover, so if he liked it I'm pretty sure others do/will too. But me? Not so much.
I told myself to try getting at least 25-30 pages in to give the book a chance but I really just couldn't.
Okay so honestly I got 12 pages in and had to stop. I have nothing against the story itself I don't think? Not up to that point anyway. I'm sure the plot, etc. is fine. It's the writing style itself I just couldn't take anymore..
There are SO many sentence fragments. Um. I don't know if that's the correct term. Incomplete sentences? Or maybe I just mean confusing sentences. I'll just give some examples because I'm totally blanking here:
"Ray with no real idea what to expect."
"All that more than ten years ago, since he'd taken the job with Memo."
"No work anywhere in the valley and Ray with a real need to put away some money."
"The chalk-dry mouth that went along with his drinking."
"The mirror grown heavy with steam, obscuring the round face that looked back at him."
"The close cut of his hair outlining his thick eyebrows and muscled Mexican face."
You get the idea. In the first 10 pages alone, there are at least 25 sentences like that.
See the thing is, with me personally... when I read a sentence that doesn't make sense, isn't quite a sentence, is confusing, etc. my mind is like "Whoa hold up a minute, what?" And I have to go back and re-read the sentence. So with this book, I was doing that crazy often and it was becoming tedious and time-consuming. It was becoming super distracting from the story itself and I found I could barely follow along.
Like, I actually ended up checking to see if this book was originally written in another language and just happened to be relatively poorly translated. As far as I can tell, that's not the case. Anyone is more than welcome to correct me if I'm wrong about that.
I WILL say right now that this could just be me. Maybe other people like the writing style. I mean, there's even a quote from Stephen King on the front cover, so if he liked it I'm pretty sure others do/will too. But me? Not so much.
I told myself to try getting at least 25-30 pages in to give the book a chance but I really just couldn't.
July 14, 2014
This novel fails to satisfy on a number of levels.
First the premise.
The hero, Ray Lamar grew up in a small Texas down that prospered during an oil boom. When the wells ran out and the economy went bust Ray decided to become an enforcer for the local drug dealer. His motive appears to be that it was the only way he could make decent money to provide for his family.
Being laid off is hardly a reason to become a stone cold killer, even if you’re only killing other scumbags, but the author would have you believe there was little choice.
Early on in the story you understand that Ray has left this life behind because the cartel has retaliated against his handiwork by killing his wife and injuring his child. You’re never quite sure what he did in the ten year absence but now he’s back to see his brain damaged son. But he’s broke and the only way a reasonably healthy, middle-aged man in America can make a decent living is to go back doing the dirty work for his former boss.
That was enough for me to abandon the book but wait, there’s more.
Urban Waite is attempting to make an action-thriller into literary fiction. How he hopes to achieve this is with a convoluted narrative and oblique dialogue. The story keeps folding in on it’s self as if revisiting the same themes adds depth. What it does is stall the plot and make the reader acutely aware of how clever the writer is trying to be.
It got to page 80 before abandoning it.
First the premise.
The hero, Ray Lamar grew up in a small Texas down that prospered during an oil boom. When the wells ran out and the economy went bust Ray decided to become an enforcer for the local drug dealer. His motive appears to be that it was the only way he could make decent money to provide for his family.
Being laid off is hardly a reason to become a stone cold killer, even if you’re only killing other scumbags, but the author would have you believe there was little choice.
Early on in the story you understand that Ray has left this life behind because the cartel has retaliated against his handiwork by killing his wife and injuring his child. You’re never quite sure what he did in the ten year absence but now he’s back to see his brain damaged son. But he’s broke and the only way a reasonably healthy, middle-aged man in America can make a decent living is to go back doing the dirty work for his former boss.
That was enough for me to abandon the book but wait, there’s more.
Urban Waite is attempting to make an action-thriller into literary fiction. How he hopes to achieve this is with a convoluted narrative and oblique dialogue. The story keeps folding in on it’s self as if revisiting the same themes adds depth. What it does is stall the plot and make the reader acutely aware of how clever the writer is trying to be.
It got to page 80 before abandoning it.
January 31, 2015
The title probably conveys that this is a dark story. Two cousins grow up in a small New Mexico town ten miles from the border. One has made better choices in his life; the other's choices have led him to a life of crime.
The author does a good job portraying Tom and Ray and their mixture of loyalty and guilt towards each other. Ray has made some bad choices, but isn't necessarily a bad man. His choices have impacted his family and their relationships in the small town. Tom lost his job as sheriff ten years earlier because of Ray. But this time Ray has been given a chance of doing one more small job that should set him up for the rest of his life. He hopes that life will be like it used to be. Of course, no job is small and uncomplicated, and the story rushes relentlessly from that one most unfortunate act.
This book is tightly paced with sympathetic characters facing growing threats by Mexican cartels and the loss of the towns' peoples livelihood. The oil wells have run dry, and so perhaps has the town. The characters do their best to hold on against a rising tide of violence and despair.
The author does a good job portraying Tom and Ray and their mixture of loyalty and guilt towards each other. Ray has made some bad choices, but isn't necessarily a bad man. His choices have impacted his family and their relationships in the small town. Tom lost his job as sheriff ten years earlier because of Ray. But this time Ray has been given a chance of doing one more small job that should set him up for the rest of his life. He hopes that life will be like it used to be. Of course, no job is small and uncomplicated, and the story rushes relentlessly from that one most unfortunate act.
This book is tightly paced with sympathetic characters facing growing threats by Mexican cartels and the loss of the towns' peoples livelihood. The oil wells have run dry, and so perhaps has the town. The characters do their best to hold on against a rising tide of violence and despair.
February 7, 2013
I registered to win this book because of the cool cover and when I received notification that I had won I wasn't overly excited about it but still glad nonetheless. When I started reading it, I was sucked in. You will end up rooting for the people you normally want to see dead. You will see how far family lines can be drawn before finally breaking the ties. You will see a small town dealing with problems that are way to big for it. You get to see revenge in the classic "kill 'em all" way." All of those were great but the part of this story that really grabbed me was the relationship (lack of) between Ray and his son. You really get the feeling that Ray wanted everything to go back to normal but his life was ripped away from him and he couldn't get it back together again. Normally when you hear about someone like Ray you want them behind bars but in this case you are really pulling for him, hoping it will all work out. Waite did a great job with this book. I really liked it and thanks to Goodreads giveaways I was able to enjoy it for free!
November 25, 2014
Me resulto algo pesado que el libro solo este dividido en 3 días aunque me gusto como va alternando a los protagonistas.
Es una historia pues podría decirse que dura, pues nunca es fácil leer sobre narcotrafico y sobre asesinatos (sobre todo cuando lo lees a menudo en las noticias). Pero en general creo que se supo desarrollar la historia y el final me gusto pues puedo imaginar que así terminan algunas de las noticias del periódico.
Lo que no me gusto fueron las primeras paginas donde hacen las descripciones pues de cierta forma me resulto molesto como el autor describe a algunos personajes mexicanos, pues en su mayoría habla como cabeza de mexicano, cabello de mexicano, color de mexicano no se si a mi me molesto y por ende lo leí con insolencia o si el autor de verdad quiso darlo a entender así.
Es una historia pues podría decirse que dura, pues nunca es fácil leer sobre narcotrafico y sobre asesinatos (sobre todo cuando lo lees a menudo en las noticias). Pero en general creo que se supo desarrollar la historia y el final me gusto pues puedo imaginar que así terminan algunas de las noticias del periódico.
Lo que no me gusto fueron las primeras paginas donde hacen las descripciones pues de cierta forma me resulto molesto como el autor describe a algunos personajes mexicanos, pues en su mayoría habla como cabeza de mexicano, cabello de mexicano, color de mexicano no se si a mi me molesto y por ende lo leí con insolencia o si el autor de verdad quiso darlo a entender así.
October 23, 2015
his is Waite's second effort and it is a strong one. It can fairly be called a border noir, something I seem to be stumbling into these days, probably because it is so popular a setting and genre. Unfortunately, there were a number of typos, including an entire paragraph which contained no sentences and a sentence interrupted by a period because of a proper noun in its midst. More annoying is the author's---and apparently the whole mess of people he thanks in the Acknowledgments---ignorance of firearms. You'd think if one were writing about gunmen and police and shootouts, one would take an hour out and learn a bit about revolvers, pistols, rifles and shotguns. Apparently not.
Such quibbles aside, we do have a good yarn here, well told, with a fair amount of grit and action to go with the second guessing of the past.
Recommended.
Such quibbles aside, we do have a good yarn here, well told, with a fair amount of grit and action to go with the second guessing of the past.
Recommended.
February 8, 2013
I received this book for free as part of the Goodreads first reads program.
The last 2/3 of this book really ratchet up the excitement (and vengeance), so if, like me, you find the first 100 pages or so tedious, just stick with it.
I liked this book, but only gave three stars because I found it unsatisfying when I was finished. There is an obvious backstory that the reader gets in spurts (and repetitive spurts at that), but never in full. This is a shame. The backstory would probably be quite interesting since it seems to involve a 10-year long set-up of the main character and his family. What we end up with is a reluctant hitman who realizes that he can't leave his past behind because his past has been manipulated at each step, but we never find out how or why.
The last 2/3 of this book really ratchet up the excitement (and vengeance), so if, like me, you find the first 100 pages or so tedious, just stick with it.
I liked this book, but only gave three stars because I found it unsatisfying when I was finished. There is an obvious backstory that the reader gets in spurts (and repetitive spurts at that), but never in full. This is a shame. The backstory would probably be quite interesting since it seems to involve a 10-year long set-up of the main character and his family. What we end up with is a reluctant hitman who realizes that he can't leave his past behind because his past has been manipulated at each step, but we never find out how or why.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 19, 2013
Urban Waite's second novel revisits some of the same territory as his first, but this time the action takes place down south in New Mexico. When a drug delivery goes wrong events quickly spiral out of control, sucking an entire town into a maelstrom of death and destruction.
Waite's prose is as lean and as muscular as before, but here you'll find him starting to discover his own voice. The location and the story have been seen before - yet The Carrion Birds feels fresh and original in its execution. Largely that's thanks to the author's unique storytelling style. Fans of Elmore Leonard, James Lee Burke, and hit TV shows Breaking Bad and Justified should love this. Urban Waite just keeps getting better and better.
Waite's prose is as lean and as muscular as before, but here you'll find him starting to discover his own voice. The location and the story have been seen before - yet The Carrion Birds feels fresh and original in its execution. Largely that's thanks to the author's unique storytelling style. Fans of Elmore Leonard, James Lee Burke, and hit TV shows Breaking Bad and Justified should love this. Urban Waite just keeps getting better and better.
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