Review by Booklist Review
Welsh-Huggins doesn't waste ink getting to the wild stuff. A gunshot victim is "spun around in a cloud of blood." A second shot and "his mouth bloomed red and the pain sheared his brain in two." That's in the opening paragraph, introducing what turns out to be an elegant crime story. It's packed with quirky, entertaining characters and told in flowing prose that has a life of its own. Soon we meet Penny, wife of the above, and follow her as she pushes through juke joints and hot-sheet motels to find and destroy the buzzard that did this to her man. This sequence contains a vividly described murder-by-fireworks, perhaps a fictional first. Pryor, the bad guy Penny hunts, sounds like a can-do junior executive. Stealing came naturally, he says. He had to train himself to murder. The real star, though, is J. P., an overweight sheriff's deputy. His behavior, after a horrendous torture scene, brings this engrossing story to a close. Recommend this to action fans and to anyone who can respond to golden--if blood-soaked--prose.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Set principally "in the middle of nowhere Ohio," this uneven crime novel from Welsh-Huggins (the Andy Hayes mysteries) opens with Pryor, a malicious hoodlum, shooting Myles, a former employee, the day after Myles's release from prison, because Myles said he wanted to go straight. (Myles was serving time for a bank robbery from which "somehow Pryor walked free.") As Myles fights for his life in the hospital, plucky Penny, a costume shop clerk and the mother of his child, realizes that the only way to keep her man safe is to track down and kill Pryor. Her dogged quest for revenge fuels most of the action. Meanwhile, Pryor has set his eye on robbing a farmer who's rumored to be hoarding a fortune, as well as plotting a bank heist. Along the way, he makes sure to inflict as much random cruelty as possible. To complicate matters, J.P., a young deputy with the Darby County Sheriff's Office, who's relentlessly bullied by his fellow officers, is on a collision course with Pryor and Penny. Clean prose makes up only in part for a sluggish plot that harbors no surprises. This reads like humorless Elmore Leonard. Agent: Victorica Skurnick, Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary. (Apr.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Myles had been out of prison for only one day when Pryor shot him because he refused to be the driver for a bank robbery. A bully before he became a criminal, Pryor doesn't like to leave bodies behind. With Myles in critical condition in the hospital and Pryor planning his next moves, Myles's partner, Penny, knows that she, Myles, and their son won't be safe as long as Pryor is alive. Pryor terrorizes witnesses and heads to a farmhouse in rural Ohio, with Penny on his trail. Although a deputy sheriff, J.P., stumbles on Pryor's hideout, it's a desperate Penny who saves the injured deputy and does whatever she can to take down Pryor. VERDICT The viewpoints of Pryor, J.P., and Penny are featured, but it's single-minded Penny who stands out. The author of the Andy Hayes mysteries separates his gritty rural noir from other thrillers by featuring a woman who isn't a cop or detective as she tracks the villain in this violent novel.--Lesa Holstine
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Hell hath no fury like a woman, or a crime boss, scorned. A literal bang opens this peripatetic saga. Somebody named Myles returns fire after having been shot by somebody named Pryor, while three miles away, Myles' girlfriend, Penny, who picked him up after his release from prison the day before, argues with a customer at the costume shop where she works. It takes several short, dialogue-heavy chapters to introduce the numerous players and bring the backstory into focus. Myles testified against Pryor, his criminal boss, but went to prison anyway, while Pryor avoided incarceration. Vengeance is Pryor's oxygen. Others in the mix are Pryor's sidekick, Archie, thugs Michigan and Robby, and sometime girlfriend, Mae; Penny's variously supportive family, which includes Mack, her son with Myles; and cops J.P., Marks, Vick, et al. Several more characters pass through the story as the action proceeds and the plot not so much thickens as spreads like wildfire in Darbytown, a crime-ridden burg not far from Columbus, Ohio. Penny, who emerges as the hero, tangles with her sister, Brandi, over her decision to stand by Myles and teams up with the woebegone Mae. Much of the story's appeal comes from its panoramic scope, with brief detours into each character's journey adding texture and humanity. The structure, tone, quick twists, and shifts of focus will remind grieving fans of Elmore Leonard. A crackerjack crime yarn chockablock with miscreants and a supersonic pace. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
