A Swollen Red Sun

by Matthew McBride Narrated by John McLain

Overview

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 Sheriff 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 deed, 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' family, his life, and everything he thinks he knows about the world.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

07/28/2014
Set in Missouri's Gasconade County, once labeled the methamphetamine capital of the world, this smoldering tale pits cop against dope dealer/desperate redneck against even more desperate redneck. In this rural area, "White-trash pharmacies run from beaten-down mobile homes at the end of dead-end roads would always trade pills for dope." Deputy Sheriff Dale Everett Banks finds $52,000 in the trailer of meth dealer Jerry Dean Skaggs, and decides to keep it. Jerry Dean needs that money to keep his secret partners happy. The plot spreads out to include more and more county residents, even Butch Pogue in his hilltop compound where he practices a weird religion and keeps his latest "wife" locked in the cellar. You know you're talking authentic hillbilly when the main characters each weigh 300 pounds. Gasconade local McBride (whose previous book was the cult favorite Frank Sinatra in a Blender) gives Breaking Bad fans more down and dirty meth action. (June)

From the Publisher

"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, A Swollen Red Sun. 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

“A Swollen Red Sun, simply put, is an epic piece of modern crime fiction. But within that, McBride never loses his sense of powerful intimacy with the characters, their lives, their families, and their demons.” —Todd Robinson, author of The Hard Bounce and editor of Thuglit

“Memorable, unique, and at times, even haunting. Every character rings true from the feckless to the noble to the downright frightening. . . . [With] dark country humor, A Swollen Red Sun is a must read.” —Johnny Shaw, Anthony Award–winning author of Big Maria and Plaster City

“Matthew McBride is one of those rare writers who can have you reeling in shock one minute, and laughing out loud the next.” —John Rector, author of Already Gone

“Make no mistake, McBride is the king of Chainsaw Noir, and there’s no one else who can step to the throne.” —Chuck Wendig, author of Blackbirds

“Matthew McBride writes like a train doing 80 miles an hour towards a curve rated for 30. The doors are rattling, the couplings are screaming, and you’re riding the blind, hoping like hell that the destination lives up to the ride. Which it does, and more. Matthew McBride is exactly my kind of writer, and Swollen Red Sun is precisely my kind of book.” —Benjamin Whitmer, author of Cry Father

“Matthew McBride is an American original. His dialogue crackles like a brush fire and he has a rare gift for pitch-perfect details that breathe life into each and every character. There’s no other writer I know whose prose could sear paint off a wall.” —Hilary Davidson, Anthony Award–winning author of Blood Always Tells

“Read [Frank Sinatra in a Blender] in a day. Loved it!” —Charlie Sheen

“McBride’s novel combines the backwoods creepiness of Nic Pizzolatto’s HBO series True Detective, the understated country humor of Johnny Shaw’s Big Maria, and the sensitivity to character and nuance of Daniel Woodrell’s Winter’s Bone.” —Booklist

“Gasconade local McBride (whose previous book was the cult favorite Frank Sinatra in a Blender) gives Breaking Bad fans more down and dirty meth action.” —Publishers Weekly

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169909036
Publisher:	Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Publication date:	06/17/2014
Edition description:	Unabridged

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