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Book summary and reviews of Hard Cash Valley by Brian Panowich

Hard Cash Valley by Brian Panowich

Hard Cash Valley

by Brian Panowich

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  • Published:
  • May 2020
    304 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Return to McFalls County and Bull Mountain in Hard Cash Valley, where Brian Panowich weaves another masterful tale of Southern Noir.

Dane Kirby is a broken man and no stranger to tragedy. As a life-long resident and ex-arson investigator for McFalls County, Dane has lived his life in one of the most chaotic and crime-ridden regions of the south. When he gets called in to consult on a brutal murder in a Jacksonville, Florida, motel room, he and his FBI counterpart, Special Agent Roselita Velasquez, begin an investigation that leads them back to the criminal circles of his own backyard.

Arnie Blackwell's murder in Jacksonville is only the beginning – and Dane and Roselita seem to be one step behind. For someone is hacking a bloody trail throughout the Southeast looking for Arnie's younger brother, a boy with Asperger's Syndrome who possesses an unusual skill with numbers that could make a lot of money and that has already gotten a lot of people killed―and has even more of the deadliest people alive willing to do anything it takes to exploit him.

As Dane joins in the hunt to find the boy, it swiftly becomes a race against the clock that has Dane entangled in a web of secrets involving everyone from the Filipino Mafia to distrusting federal agents to some of hardest southern outlaws he's ever known.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"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)

"[G]ritty...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

This information about Hard Cash Valley was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Write your own reviewwrite your own review

lani

page turner
How do I begin to even talk about this hard scrabble book that I loved with such fierce intensity. Panowich is such a great writer; I was lucky to have found him before and read his previous two novels. I finished this book with tears streaming down my face. Who would have thought that I would be attracted to a southern noir novel set in the Bull Mountain area, north Georgia where criminals and fringe of society members live in a world of their own. A world is created whose characters spar between good and evil with pulse racing prose that whirls with tension creating an immensely compelling book. Dane Kirby, an ex-arson investigator lives in this brutal crime area and is called upon to investigate a bloody murder of several people ,and then assigned to a new female partner. But the carnage only leads to a circuitous trail of more crimes and massacres culminating in the search for a young autistic boy who holds the key to it all. It can be violent; but it is also about love, tenderness, and the deep bond of friendship. Oh, how I didn't want this to end!

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Author Information

Brian Panowich Author Biography

Photo: David Kernaghan

Brian Panowich is an award winning author, a Georgia firefighter, and a father to four incredible children. His first novel, Bull Mountain, was a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist, ITW Thriller Award winner for Best First Novel, Southern Book Prize winner, and a finalist for both the Anthony and the Barry Awards. He lives in Georgia with his family.

Link to Brian Panowich's Website

Name Pronunciation
Brian Panowich: PAN-oh-wich

Other books by Brian Panowich at BookBrowse
  • Bull Mountain jacket
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