Razorblade Tears Paperback – April 5, 2022

“A Black father. A white father. Two murdered sons. A quest for vengeance.”That tagline alone sets the tone for this gripping, emotional, and fiercely raw story that S.A. Cosby has masterfully crafted in Razorblade Tears.At the heart of the novel are two broken men—Ike Randolph, a Black man who’s walked the straight and narrow since leaving prison, and Buddy Lee, a white man still nursing regrets and relying on his old criminal connections. Both are fathers, both are flawed, and both are grieving the violent deaths of their sons, Isiah and Derek—married to each other in life, united in death. The irony? Neither father fully accepted their sons’ sexuality while they were alive.This novel was so many things: emotional, tense, dark, and surprisingly funny at times. It’s a brutal meditation on love, loss, regret, and redemption, all wrapped in a high-stakes thriller. There’s truly nothing more powerful than a father’s love, even when it's tangled in pain and prejudice. As Ike and Buddy Lee seek vengeance, they also embark on a deeper, more painful journey—confronting the ways they failed their sons and learning to see each other through new eyes.I absolutely loved this book. It’s hard to put into words how deeply it affected me. The writing is vivid and unflinching, the action unrelenting, but it’s the emotional core that left the deepest mark. The evolving relationship between Ike and Buddy Lee is the highlight of the story—two hopelessly broken men, irrevocably bonded in grief and guilt. Their bond is messy, heartfelt, and unforgettable.The ending left me a little heartbroken, but it felt right. Bittersweet, gritty, and honest. Razorblade Tears is everything a great thriller should be—and so much more. It’s a full-body experience, and I enjoyed every minute of it.A definite five-star read. Chef’s kiss.

S.A. Cosby's Blacktop Wasteland was a knockout of a noir novel, one that was so good that it basically guaranteed a purchase of his next book. Razorblade Tears more than merits that purchase, thankfully; while it occasionally veers into some heavy-handedness, it never loses focus on delivering a pitch-black tale about revenge and justice - and the thin line between the two. The tale of two fathers who meet over the graves of their murdered sons - who were lovers - Razorblade Tears is the story of those two men's journey to find the killers of their boys. It's also a story about the way both men rejected their sons for being gay; it's also a story about race relations (one father is white, the other is black), all while also being a story about escaping our pasts and our darker sides. Somehow, though, Cosby weaves all of that together beautifully, delivering a story that never loses its focus on the drive of these two men to make someone - anyone - pay for the death of their children, all while unblinkingly looking at the choices these men made that led to their own isolation from their boys. Razorblade Tears every so often gets a little lecture-y, with a few monologues that feel preachy or heavy-handed, but by and large, it all works within the range of these characters. And even when they don't, that doesn't really hurt the book as a whole, which once again reminds me of how good Cosby was - and is - at delivering painful, brutal, riveting action setpieces. Razorblade Tears is darker and more vicious than Blacktop, and it's got a couple of bumps, but it's worth every penny I paid for it - and it's left me every bit as eager for the next book Cosby writes.

“This is who I am. I can’t change. I don’t want to, really. But for once I’m gonna put this devil inside me to good use.”S.A. Cosby impressed me with Blacktop Wasteland. He absolutely blew me away with Razorblade Tears.A killer premise is always a good start. Ike Randolph and Buddy Lee are plenty different. Ike is black; Buddy Lee is white. Ike built a business from the ground up and employs crews of workers; Buddy Lee’s work history is checkered at best. Ike is a comfortable business and home owner; Buddy Lee lives in a dilapidated single-wide trailer with a window unit that pushes around lukewarm air. Ike is happily married; Buddy Lee hasn’t been in a serious relationship since his son’s mom left him. But they have a few things in common too. Both did time in prison. Both have ample capacity to deal out violence. Neither could accept their son’s homosexuality. Their sons who were married to each other. Who were just murdered.To paraphrase Solomon Kane, men will die for that.Ike isn’t quick to go back to that old life, to be Riot Randolph again. He has a lot to lose now—a home, a business, a wife, a granddaughter. He knows the danger of going back to that dark place is more than physical. Buddy Lee feels different, though, and Buddy Lee talks him into it. Ike and Buddy Lee have more than skin color and the rest of the stuff I mentioned above that makes him different. Ike is all about bottling up his ungovernable rage. Buddy Lee is happy-go-lucky with a quip for everything and lets his rage fly freely. Both men have plenty of rage to spread around with the blood.The contrast really works. I can see plenty of myself in both characters, and the characters play off of each other. The conflict of personality between the two helps drive the narrative, along with the conflict conflict and their conflicting emotions toward their sons. They loved their sons but couldn’t accept them. They realize the error of their ways now, but it is too late and men do not change their worldview overnight.Ike and Buddy Lee set about getting to the bottom of why their sons got killed in what looks like a less-than-random way. Which isn’t to say this is a mystery. Ike and Buddy Lee are killers, not investigators. They lack the skills to find the killers, but start knocking heads around and the killers are liable to come find you. They can handle themselves just fine from there.One reason I love country noir is how comfortably it sits in the overlap between literary and pulp, often showcasing the best of both worlds. Razorblade Tears is killer from either perspective. The subject matter is heavy and handled with gravity. The character arcs are rich. The prose is elegant and deep. The action comes early and often. The violence is visceral. The revenge is sweet. The pacing is propulsive. Don’t get fooled into thinking people are praising this book because it’s trendy—it’s the real deal, and for all the depth it works completely from a pulp perspective.

This book is so well written it was like watching a film at the cinema. All of the characters came to life, the plot was believable, and many emotions were evoked in me. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys books about injustice, prejudice, and hate.