MATTHEW McBRIDE - A SWOLLEN RED SUN

Synopsis/blurb…..

God, drugs, corruption, and morality come together in this gripping tale of desperation

In Gasconade County, Missouri—once called the meth capital of the world—Deputy Sherriff Dale Banks discovers $52,000 hidden in the broken-down trailer that Jerry Dean Skaggs uses for cooking crystal. And he takes it. Banks knows what he did was wrong, but he did it for all the right reasons. At least, he thinks so. But for every wrong, there is a consequence.

Jerry Dean can’t afford to lose that $52,000—he owes it to his partners and to a crooked cop. He also can’t afford to disappoint the crazed and fearsome Reverend Butch Pogue, who is expecting Jerry Dean to deliver the chemicals the reverend needs for his next batch of meth. To avoid the holy man’s wrath, Jerry Dean sets in motion a series of events that will threaten Banks’s family, his life, and everything he thinks he knows about the world.

Matthew McBride's new novel, A Swollen Red Sun, is rough and ready suspense, encompassing a wide array of characters from the sour side of life, and smashing them together with vigorous and blunt prose." —Daniel Woodrell, author of The Maid's Version and Winter's Bone

"The words practically vibrate off the page in Matthew McBride's amped-up and intricately-plotted novel about meth freaks and dirty cops. Filled with scenes of both tremendous brutality and heartrending compassion, it is the best fictional depiction of the current drug epidemic raging across the Midwest that I have ever read." —Donald Ray Pollock, author of Knockemstiff and The Devil All The Time

Praise from two authors who I have read and enjoyed, always has me optimistic as opposed to merely hopeful when embarking a new book!

I do like reading books concerning drugs, drug dealers and drug users – perhaps I’m an addict! Add in a mess of cops – straight, crooked and one halfway in-between – we’ll call him conflicted. Throw in an odd-ball, disturbed preacherman; the one with two wives, one of which is chained up in the cellar with a ball-gag in her mouth. Even the crooked cops won’t venture onto the mountain where Rev. Pogue is cooking up his crystal!

Dale Banks is the cop who cashes in after kicking over a mess of cat litter during a raid. Banks, a family man and an otherwise honest cop up until this point at least, succumbs to the temptation, in full knowledge of repercussions further down the road. Banks endangers his young family and straight-laced partner with his impulsiveness, but doesn’t regard returning the money as a viable option.

As events escalate and spiral into further violence; Jerry Dean - $52k light – hatches a plan to recover his money and with a glint of ambition in his eye, rescue Pogue’s young ball-gagged wife whilst taking over Pogue’s operation. All the while, Banks is trying to figure out who he can trust to combat the growing threat to him and his family and Banks’ nemesis on the force, a man with political aspirations starts cleaning away any links to his involvement in the meth trade.     

Fast and violent. Not everyone’s cup of tea but certainly mine. Extremely enjoyable, with an ironic twist at the end.

5 from 5

I have Matthew McBride’s debut sat on the pile, the enigmatically titled – Frank Sinatra in a Blender. To be enjoyed soon, I think.

I can’t find a website for him, but he’s on Twitter (@matthewjmcbride)

I accessed this one via Net Galley. A Swollen Red Sun is published and available now from Mysterious Press.