Razorblade Tears: A Novel

Quite rightly, everyone raved about SA Cosby’s blisteringly kinetic crime debut ‘Blacktop Wasteland’ when it was released last year. That includes me, and you can read my review of it here. The danger with an out of nowhere, word of mouth smash like that from a new author is that it ends up being a flash in the pan. A one off work of genius that the writer can’t repeat. For that reason I was nervous opening ‘Razorblade Tears’. It took me precisely one paragraph to know I had nothing to worry about. The setup of the book is one of my favourite things about it. The heroes, Ike and Buddy Lee, are both ex-cons, one white, one black. They’re brought together when their sons, a married gay couple, are murdered. The two men set out to find the killers and kick off a truly memorable, gripping novel that is one of the best examples of popular fiction I’ve read in years. It mixes mystery, action and a buddy movie style odd couple to make a thriller that ticks every single box. In ‘Blacktop Wasteland’ Cosby proved he could write car chases that screamed off the page with the energy of a great movie. In ‘Razorblade Tears’ he does the same thing with gunfights. The shootouts here grip and thrill completely, not least because the reader really cares about the outcome. Not only is it brilliantly entertaining, it also comments on the state of modern America without ever feeling preachy. It covers racism, homophobia, and the affects of poverty, in a way that doesn’t shy away from the hard questions. Ike and Buddy Lee both struggle with their sons’ gay identities but come to a new understanding of equality in a way that feels completely natural. They’re both great characters. Ike a dour, determined man who reminded me a little of Walter Mosley’s Socrates Fortlow. Buddy Lee a washed up, wisecracking alcoholic redneck who finds redemption through his quest for justice. I really think that Cosby has reinvented the pulp crime novel for the 2020s. His prose may go over the top at times, but it’s never less than brilliantly readable and has a raw authenticity that makes it a delight to read. Whether he’s describing acts of violence or tenderness his words have huge impact. ‘Razorblade Tears’ really does have everything you could want from a book. It’s filled with humour, compassion and righteous violence. It thrilled me and moved me and I can’t wait for Cosby’s next book.

Loved this novel. I’m a black girl from the South in my 30s and so much of the generation that raised have the old, toxic mentalities that the book speaks about. Not only is it important to understand why their way of thinking is what it is but also who taught them. Thanx Mr. Cosby, would recommend this read to anyone.

This story has stayed with me since I finished it. This is a story about how tragedy made two grown and stubborn men see the world through new lenses. How their pain and grief created a bond as they had to re-examine how they treated their spouses, children and other people. What an examination of race, hate crime and justice, and socio-economic biases. I connected the most with Ike. His passion and his desire to live differently resonated with me. He tried to leash his inner demon and I respected his steadfastness to keep his head down. I also enjoyed Buddy Lee’s quips and slightly manipulative ways. He had a good heart but owned his mistakes and tried to learn from them. Buddy Lee was loud and Ike was quiet strength. A true yin and yang team of fathers. I’m sad we never got to know Isaiah and Derek in their own voices. They seem like such great guys and worthy of remembrance. The writing in this story was much more graphic and violent that I was expecting but I settled in because Justice is important to me. Though I have to admit it was tough to read at times. I know it will make an awesome film with Idris Elba as Ike (hopefully). I plan to read more of this author!

S.A. Cosby is doing something remarkable with the hardboiled crime novel. He's showing that it may work better when men express their emotions through words and bullets, instead of letting the bullets do all their heavy lifting, as as historically been the case. I think we've all hit the wall with emotionally constipated men who equate silence with stoicism, and stoicism with integrity. Ike "Riot" Randolph and Buddy Lee Jenkins, the two old men at the heart of RAZORBLADE TEARS, don't have enough time to hold anything back anyone — especially not after after their sons, married to one another and marinating in their dads' stone-faced old-school disapproval — were murdered by parties unknown. When the police let the case go cold, Ike, a former shot-caller for a Black gang, and Buddy Lee, a longtime racist and homophobe with a prison history of his own, decide that a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do, and decide, with great reluctance, that it's better for two men to do what two men gotta do, together. Like the genre in which their story told, they've got to stretch themselves out if they're going to come out on top. All of this is told with great garish splashes of Shakespearean color in Southern accents and vocabularies, with a body count to match. The men do a lot of talking, and there are times when even these two voluble old men, still trying to find some sort of peace with the prejudices that brought them to this point, find that knives, guns and assorted gardening implements do their talking just as well. Page to page, you're in the presence of apocalyptic abundance and bleeding hearts of every conceivable kind, and no doubt the film version of RAZORBLADE TEARS, already in development, will star Samuel L. Jackson and feature pretty much everything Samuel L. Jackson in three decades of Samuel L. Jackson movies has ever stood for -- lots of talk, lots of blood, lather rinse and repeat. The overall effect for the reader is a feeling of being gleefully overwhelmed. The pages turn, but not in the way of a James Patterson page-turner -- each passage is richly textured with the finest pulp and propels forward on a diet that's anything but empty calories. RAZORBLADE TEARS isn't perfect. Omniscient third-person POV is a tough thing to pull off, and at times I was more aware of the hopping from head to head than I think I was meant to be, and those moments were jarring and disorienting. Its many splashy similes land, for me anyway, at a rate I'd tag just north of 50 percent at best, and sometimes they pulled me out of the story with a visible wince. And for those who believe a crime novel is only as strong as its villain, the villain in RAZORBLADE TEARS will register disappointingly as an off-the-rack afterthought, a too-pat, one-dimensional Snidely Whiplash type whose "surprise" reveal is broadly telegraphed well in advance, and...

This is one of the best novels I've read about grief and the ways that fathers can fail their sons. Once you start it, it's hard to put down. It's tragic, sad, and exciting, with some of the best elements of the "mismatched partners" trope. I have read some reviews that are uncomfortable with the way in which the sons of the main characters are basically afterthoughts, a tragedy to set the main characters in motion. I think I can agree with that criticism and still conclude that this book is worth reading. Crosby isn't trying to tell THEIR story, he's telling the story of their fathers. We can want more novels that are telling the stories of men like the sons while still appreciating this book.