Blacktop Wasteland

*GUARDIAN BEST CRIME AND THRILLERS OF 2020*

'Sensationally good' — Lee Child
'I loved BLACKTOP WASTELAND' — Stephen King
'An urgent, timely, pitch-perfect jolt of American noir' — Dennis Lehane

Beauregard "Bug" Montage: honest mechanic, loving family man. He's no longer the criminal he was — the sharpest wheelman east of the Mississippi. But when his respectable life crumbles, a shady associate comes calling with a one-time job promising a huge payout. Inexorably drawn to the driver's seat — and haunted by the ghost of his outlaw father — Bug is yanked back into a savage world of bullets and betrayal.

Like Breaking Bad in a high-speed collision with Drive, this dazzling novel holds up a cracked mirror to the American Dream — and tells the story of one man pushed to his limits by poverty, race and a self-destructive masculinity.

'A superb character study wrapped up in a high-octane heist novel' — Guardian

'The action sequences are superb, the dialogue wouldn't shame Elmore Leonard, and Bug's experiences recall Walter Mosley at his most powerful...fantastic' — Sunday Times

'A delicious slice of country gothic wrapped in smart, hard, contemporary neo noir.' — ADRIAN McKINTY

ISBN: 9781472273758 | Published: 30 March 2021 | Paperback | 304 pages