King of Ashes

Alright, you need to hear about this book. It’s from S. A. Cosby, and honestly, the hype is real. I mean, everyone—The Atlantic, The Washington Post, TIME, you name it—is saying this is the book to read. It’s called King of Ashes, and it is a dark, riveting, Southern crime epic.

Think The Godfather, but set in a run-down Virginia town. The story pulls you in right away. The eldest son, Roman Carruthers, is summoned home because his dad had a car accident. But when he arrives, he finds his family in absolute chaos. His younger brother, Dante, is in deep with some very dangerous criminals, and his sister, Neveah, is exhausted from holding their family crematorium business—and the family itself—together.

And that crash that landed their father in a coma? Yeah, it was no accident. The whole family is in real danger.

Roman is a financial whiz, a numbers guy with a talent for making people rich. He thinks he can just use his money to solve the problem. But he quickly learns there’s a huge difference between wannabe tough guys and actual gangsters. When his bargaining chips go up in smoke, Roman realizes he has only one thing left to offer to save his brother: himself and his own particular set of skills.

While Roman begins this dark new work, Neveah starts digging into a haunting family mystery: what happened to their mother, who disappeared when they were just teenagers.

It’s this incredible, fast-paced story about how far someone will go for family when there's no end in sight. Roman is willing to do anything to save them. And I mean anything. Because, as the book says, everything burns.