"King of Ashes" | Reviewed by Chris Stuckenschneider

Searing and gritty, “King of Ashes” by S. A. Cosby, ropes readers in with a runaway plot about a family who owns and operates a crematorium. It’s a bleak setting for a thriller that grabs you from page one with unrelenting action and flawed characters, some of whom you root for, despite their black hearts and devious ways.

Roman Carruthers is an educated, well-heeled Atlanta money manager. He’s done well for himself, but Roman has ghosts that haunt him from his childhood in Jefferson Run, Virginia. Roman hasn’t been home in five years, but when his sister Neveah calls telling him their father’s in a coma following a car accident, Roman heads home, but not before an appointment with a woman who berates and punishes him while they’re having sex. Roman sees her regularly to purge his guilt. A hint of something amiss is planted.

The Carruthers family was tight-knit, working together to make the crematorium their father started successful, but when their mother unexpectedly disappeared without a trace, the relationship between Roman, Neveah and their younger brother Dante unraveled, each suffering “shared guilt.”  Roman moved, and Dante got into drugs, leaving Neveah to run the crematorium with their father. She resents the responsibility of the business and seeks comfort in the company of Chauncey, a cop with a wife and family.

Coming home is anything but joyful for Roman—he didn’t expect it would be—but circumstances are far worse than expected. Overnight Roman finds his family embroiled in a nightmare that could cost them their lives.

Dante, the younger brother, is a party guy with a drug issue. He's made a deal with a friend to flip drugs, to get some “easy money” so he can stop working at the crematorium, which he hates. Instead of selling the drugs, Dante and his friend used them, gave some away. Now they’re in deep with Torrent and Tranquil, who head up the Black Baron Boys, killers who torture, maim and murder at random.

The clock ticks for Dante and Roman to come up with hundreds of thousands of dollars, plus consent to a commitment to partner with two men who have no soul. Dante and Roman keep the ominous deadline from Neveah, who is embroiled with her lover and obsessed with finding out what happened to their mother, the family rock adored by her husband and children.

As the noose around Dante and Roman’s neck tightens, with seemingly no way out, crafty, crooked, but fast-thinking Roman devises an intricate plan to save his family. Threats are made, violence ensues, victims fall and bodies burn in a book that’s unputdownable.

For a summer sizzler don’t pass up “The King of Ashes,” which gives new meaning to family loyalty.

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