King of Ashes by S. A. Cosby
At this point, it’s safe to say that S. A. Cosby can’t miss! He is a master at creating morally gray characters, and King of Ashes‘ Atlanta-based financial advisor, Roman Carruthers, might be my favorite.
After learning his father is in a coma, Roman returns home to Jefferson Run, Virginia. What he thinks will be a simple, though perhaps emotional, trip turns into pure chaos when he learns his brother, Dante, is in debt to local gangsters.
Being the financial whiz that he is, Roman believes he can use that role to bargain for his brother’s life. Yet what follows is a dangerous game of chess as Roman struggles to stay one step ahead of the bad guys.
That premise alone would have made a good story, but what makes it great, what Cosby has truly mastered, is the emotional ties that both bind us and break us.
I love how Cosby uses the love, loss, and legacy of family to anchor the story. We learn quickly that Roman and his siblings are still haunted by their mother’s disappearance. She has been gone for nearly twenty years, yet none of them have truly been able to move on.
Roman turns to BDSM, hoping that the sharp sting of a whip will ease his grief.
Dante resigns himself to being the family “loser” and numbs his pain with drugs. Their sister, Neveah, picks up his slack and runs their family Crematorium all while scouring her mother’s case for clues–and harboring a growing resentment for their father.
It is with this in mind, the hope to make up for time lost with his family, that Roman puts himself on the line. He enlists the help of his fixer, Khalil… sidebar: Mr. Cosby, please write a Khalil book!
And together they cross some serious lines in the name of justice, aka a regular old Monday in any story from Cosby. If you’ve read Razorblade Tears, then you know that by the end, it’s hard to tell the bad guys from the good ones!
Which is why Cosby’s books are so binge-worthy–the morals of the characters are never cut and dry!
Perhaps the thing I loved most about this book is that there’s a particular twist that you actually see coming. Normally, that’s a bad and boring thing, but in the hands of Cosby, it had me praying my intuition was wrong and zipping through the audio to find out!
And speaking of audio, you absolutely must listen to this one. Adam Lazarre-White does a phenomenal narration that sucks you into the story and never lets you go.
And the ending… Lord, the ending.
Some say it was rushed, but really, with everything that happened in this book, the brief climax was a mercy–though I’m not sure the characters would agree.
All that to say, this is an absolute must-read! It’s giving bougie urban fiction, family drama, and a dash of romance. It’s giving, read me now and not later!
