Razorblade Tears

I like this very violent book because it shows how the love of two fathers for their murdered sons overcomes their own racial and sexual prejudices.

One father is a white redneck and the other is a Black ex-con. Their sons married each other and have been estranged from their fathers because of their homosexuality. When they are murdered, these two men must link up and exact both justice and revenge. What a great premise!

Cosby nicely shows how the two men grow to understand and accept each other because of this higher calling. It ends in blood.

Two ex-con fathers reluctantly team up to find out who murdered their gay sons.

It’s a great premise for a book and it lives up to and surpasses all expectations. S.A.Cosby burst onto the crime writing scene with Blacktop Wasteland but in my opinion, this book is even better.

Gritty, muscular writing with heart, humour, and lines that are almost poetic in their beauty.

You feel the pain and loss of the main characters and their guilt too, for not accepting their sons for who they were – and boy, do you want them find those responsible for their deaths… show more.

I love that S.A. Cosby weaves sly, ironic humor into his protagonist’s observations, often about race and living in Southern Virginia. Even better, the wives and girlfriends are much smarter and more competent than the men. It has been years since Ike Randolph did time. He is determined to be a dedicated family man, but he can’t help himself when his son is murdered along with his white husband. Partly driven by vengeance and partly by guilt for how he treated his gay son, Ike teams up with Buddy Lee, the other father. Buddy is as flawed and guilty as… show more.

It doesn’t deal with neurodiversity, but it’s diverse on many levels. It transported me to a world I was unfamiliar with—rural Virginia—full of recognizable human characters. Two fathers separated by racial divides who ultimately have more in common than they want to admit. Both are ex-cons trying to stay out of jail. Both dinosaurs of eras gone by. Both are homophobic with gay sons, sons who married each other and then were murdered. These fathers are searching for the killers, and trying to come to grips with how they treated their sons. This book forced me to look at my… show more.

In small-town Virginia, the Black owner of a successful landscaping business and a white alcoholic ne’er-do-well who lives in a broken-down trailer might seem to have little in common, but they do. Their gay sons married each other and were murdered. Now both dads regret how they hadn’t accepted their sons’ choices. They form an uneasy alliance to track down the killers. They want more than revenge. They want redemption. And justice. The narrator of the audio version (Adam Lazarre-White) is absolutely brilliant. I especially liked how Cosby doesn’t shy away from fundamental, painful issues in American society and treats… show more.