Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby

Blacktop Wasteland
by S.A. Cosby
narrated by Adam Lazarre-White

Published: 2020
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Hardback: 304
Rating: 5
Mystery, Thriller, Noir | Goodreads
Travel destination: Virginia

Zombie sighting:
A few patients tethered to IV's were moving past the staff like forlorn zombies.
-chapter 33

First sentence(s):
Beauregard through the night sky looked like a painting.

Beauregard “Bug” Montage is an honest mechanic, a loving husband, and a hard-working dad. Bug knows there’s no future in the man he used to be: known from the hills of North Carolina to the beaches of Florida as the best wheelman on the East Coast.

He thought he'd left all that behind him, but as his carefully built new life begins to crumble, he finds himself drawn inexorably back into a world of blood and bullets. When a smooth-talking former associate comes calling with a can't-miss jewelry store heist, Bug feels he has no choice but to get back in the driver's seat. And Bug is at his best where the scent of gasoline mixes with the smell of fear.

Haunted by the ghost of who he used to be and the father who disappeared when he needed him most, Bug must find a way to navigate this blacktop wasteland... or die trying.

My two-bits:

Cars, heists, bad guys, good guys...

Great wild ride with this gritty contemporary story with a noir vibe and thrilling car chase scenes.

~*~
* Listened to audiobook version.

* part of Armchair Autumn Travel (here)

* part of part of Summertime time (here)

Armchair Autumn Travel

Armchair Autumn Travel
September to December 2020


Starting out my trip with this while sitting in a virtual airport...

The Jetsetters
by Amanda Eyre Ward
Contemporary, Chick-lit | Goodreads | my review
Countries in this story include:
Greece
Malta
Italy
France
Spain

ASIA
NEPAL: The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen - my review

EUROPE
DENMARK: The Tenant by Katrine Engberg - my review
FRANCE: The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel - my review
SWEDEN: Beartown by Fredrik Backman - my review

MIDDLE EAST
Israel: The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd - my review

SOUTH AMERICA
Mexico: Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia - my review
Argentina: Furia by Yamile Saied Méndez - my review

AFRICA
Ghana: His Only Wife by Peace Adzo Medie - my review

OCEANIA

NORTH AMERICA
California, Los Angeles: The Bookshop of Yesterdays by Amy Meyerson - my review
California, Los Angeles: The Last Story of Mina Lee by Nancy Jooyun Kim - my review
Virginia: Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby - my review

And when all is said and done with this travel interlude, I will catch a ride on...

The Last Flight
by Julia Clark
Thriller, Mystery | Goodreads | my rating: 4
my two bits: Really engaging with a good pace for a thriller mystery read. I liked how the switcheroo trope played out.

~*~

* header image source: Compartment C Car 293 by Edward Hopper

Summer Mysteries

~*~

Dark August
by Katie Tallo
Mystery, Thriller | Goodreads
An electrifying, page-turning debut about a young woman haunted by her tragic past, who returns to her hometown and discovers that there might be more to her police detective mother’s death—and last case—than she ever could have imagined.

Augusta (Gus) Monet is living an aimless existence with her grifter boyfriend when she learns that her great grandmother—her last living relative—has just died. Ditching her boyfriend, Gus returns to the home she left as a young girl. Her inheritance turns out to be a dilapidated house and an old dog named Levi. While combing through her great grandmother’s possessions, Gus stumbles across an old trunk filled with long-lost childhood belongings. But that’s not all the trunk contains. She also discovers cold case files that belonged to her mother, a disgraced police detective who died in a car accident when Gus was eight. Gus remembers her mother obsessing over these very same documents and photographs, especially a Polaroid of a young ballerina.

When Gus spots a front-page news story about the unearthing of a body linked to one of the cold case files from her grandmother’s trunk, she can’t resist following her mother’s clues. As she digs deeper, determined to finish her mother’s investigation, her search leads her to a deserted ghost town, which was left abandoned when the residents fled after a horrific fire. As Gus’ obsession with the case grows, she inadvertently stirs up the evils of the past, putting her life in danger. But Gus refuses to be undeterred and is committed to uncovering long-buried secrets, including the secrets surrounding a missing geology student, the young ballerina in the Polaroid, a prominent family’s devastating legacy, and a toxic blast that blew an entire town off the map.

But is Gus ready to learn the truths that culminated on one terrible August night, more than a decade earlier, when lives were taken, and secrets were presumed buried forever…?

The Lion's Den
by Katherine St. John
Chick-lit, Thriller, Mystery | Goodreads
Belle likes to think herself immune to the dizzying effects of fabulous wealth. But when her best friend, Summer, invites her on a glamorous getaway to the Mediterranean aboard her billionaire boyfriend's yacht, the only sensible answer is yes. Belle hopes the trip will be a much-needed break from her stalled acting career and uniquely humiliating waitressing job, but once she's aboard the luxurious Lion's Den, it soon becomes clear this jet-setting holiday is not as advertised.

Belle's dream vacation quickly devolves into a nightmare as she and the handful of other girls Summer invited are treated more like prisoners than guests by their controlling host-and in one terrifying moment, Belle comes to see Summer for who she truly is: a vicious gold digger who will stop at nothing to get what she wants.

Belle realizes she's going to have to keep her wits about her -- and her own big secret closely hidden -- if she wants to make it off the yacht alive.

Blacktop Wasteland
by S.A. Cosby
Mystery, Thriller | Goodreads
Beauregard “Bug” Montage is an honest mechanic, a loving husband, and a hard-working dad. Bug knows there’s no future in the man he used to be: known from the hills of North Carolina to the beaches of Florida as the best wheelman on the East Coast.

He thought he'd left all that behind him, but as his carefully built new life begins to crumble, he finds himself drawn inexorably back into a world of blood and bullets. When a smooth-talking former associate comes calling with a can't-miss jewelry store heist, Bug feels he has no choice but to get back in the driver's seat. And Bug is at his best where the scent of gasoline mixes with the smell of fear.

Haunted by the ghost of who he used to be and the father who disappeared when he needed him most, Bug must find a way to navigate this blacktop wasteland...or die trying.

~*~
* image source: Pointe du Raz, Brittany, France, 1983 by Harry Gruyaert


* part of Summertime time ( schedule )