Publishers Weekly
03/23/2020
Early in Panowich’s gritty, pull-no-punches third thriller set in Georgia’s McFalls County (after 2019’s Like Lions), two thugs corner Arnie Blackwell, who has just arrived in Jacksonville, Fla., with a suitcase full of cash, in Arnie’s motel room. One of the men accuses Arnie of having stolen a lot of money. When Arnie refuses to explain how he did it and who else was involved, the pair torture him to death. Georgia Bureau of Investigation consultant Dane Kirby flies to Florida to join the FBI in looking into Arnie’s murder. Dane is baffled about the motive, until he learns that the dead man was at the Slasher, the largest cockfighting tournament in the U.S., which was recently held in McFalls County. Arnie somehow managed to bet successfully on every fight in every round, an impossible feat akin to clearing out the MGM Grand “of every dollar in one night.” The violent search by Arnie’s killers doesn’t end with his death. The suspenseful plot is enhanced by Panowich’s gifts at making even walk-on characters memorable. Fans of Ace Atkins’s Quinn Colson series will be pleased. 75,000-copy announced first printing. Agent: Nat Sobel, Sobel Weber Assoc. (May)
From the Publisher
Advance Praise for Hard Cash Valley
"Mr. Panowich, as he did in his previous novels, depicts his Southern terrain well.... There is more mayhem to come, as well as jaw-dropping twists." — The Wall Street Journal
“Make room for this splendid genre-bender, a crime novel with emotional resonance and a steady flow of fine writing. Plus staggering plot twists, jaw-dropping revelations, and enough suspense to fill two books . . . A first-rate thriller, lavishly decked out in high style.” — Booklist, starred review
“[D]electable rural noir . . . Panowich’s prose is languid and easygoing as a back-county road . . . Good rural mysteries excel at showing how both the land and the law that governs it are deeply personal, and Panowich knows the residents of the Georgia foothills down to his bones. Perfect for fans of Attica Locke or Laura McHugh.” — Library Journal (starred review)
“Early in Panowich’s gritty, pull-no-punches third thriller set in Georgia’s McFalls County (after 2019’s Like Lions), two thugs corner Arnie Blackwell, who has just arrived in Jacksonville, Fla., with a suitcase full of cash, in Arnie’s motel room . . . The violent search by Arnie’s killers doesn’t end with his death. The suspenseful plot is enhanced by Panowich’s gifts at making even walk-on characters memorable. Fans of Ace Atkins’s Quinn Colson series will be pleased.” — Publishers Weekly
“This is country noir with a bite as sharp as a rattler's.” — AARP
Praise for Like Lions
“The action is fierce, the characters are brutal, the dialogue is filthy and the writing is so good it brings hot tears to your eyes.” —Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review
"A book filled with unforgettable characters and a tension that heightens with every chapter." —The Wall Street Journal
“Brian Panowich makes a triumphant return to Bull Mountain, Georgia, in his second novel, “Like Lions,” as he continues to mix crime fiction with a violent family drama, perfectly melding characters with a sense of place . . . “Like Lions” moves at a brisk clip, leading to a stunning, yet believable, finale.” —Associated Press
“A violent, gruesome, sharply focused tale. . . Panowich salts his tale with evocative detail . . . Action and reflection are skillfully balanced in a vigorously written, trenchant tale.” — Kirkus Reviews
"This is hillbilly noir at its finest.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Brian Panowich’s glorious return to Bull Mountain is another sprawling, brutal, no-holds-barred novel that held me in a death grip from page one until it kicked me out of the door with an ending I never saw coming.”—C.J. Box
Library Journal
★ 05/01/2020
In this delectable rural noir by Panowich (Like Lions), set in the hills of McFalls County, GA, ex-fire investigator and current Georgia Bureau of Investigation freelancer Dane Kirby gets called in to a murder investigation that quickly connects to a Filipino crime lord, an illegal cockfighting ring, and the disappearance of a child who has an uncanny connection with birds. As Dane's wife and daughter were killed in a Fourth of July accident, a tragedy looms over him. Panowich's prose is languid and easygoing as a back-county road as a stoic Dane, alongside FBI agent Roselita Velasquez, confronts the local crime lords who have a longstanding presence in the area—and with him. Well-developed side characters from crime vicitms to fellow FBI agents fill in the corners of the author's world. A rote shootout at the story's end mars an otherwise excellent novel. VERDICT Good rural mysteries excel at showing how both the land and the law that governs it are deeply personal, and Panowich knows the residents of the Georgia foothills down to his bones. Perfect for fans of Attica Locke or Laura McHugh. [See Prepub Alert, 10/28/19.]—Gregg Winsor, Johnson Cty. Lib., Overland Park, KS
