Hannah Jones arrives at Oxford hardly believing that she’s been accepted into this haven of learning and wealth. Ten years after having discovered her Oxford roommate’s dead body in front of the fireplace in their room, a young woman struggles with the realization that she may have helped send the wrong man to prison.

The at-times action-packed ride can’t hide the fact that this one doesn't fire on all cylinders. But the supporting cast isn't nearly as compelling, and some turns of phrase (“Pockets of rust covered the hood like some oxidizing eczema,” “Even after all these years, she still captivated the savage that lived between his legs”) are as painful as anything anybody suffers in the bloody climax. Give in to it and you end up doing five years in some hellhole.” Beauregard’s anguish makes him a sympathetic lead.

Push it down deep and it rots you from the inside out. “Money can’t fix it and love can’t tame it. This is also a novel about the struggles of being an African American man with an absent father who’s “a ghost without a grave.” The Montages have a family tradition for violence that Beauregard doesn’t want to pass down. Is it any wonder he’s thinking of returning to his criminal past for one more job that will solve all his problems-and feed his need for thrills to boot? The stage is eventually set for a big-dollar diamond heist-but the story’s not that simple. He needs money-and a lot more than he can make in illegal drag races in his classic Duster, because everybody in Red Hill County, Virginia, knows he’s the fastest driver around. But his repair shop is about to go belly up. His cancer-stricken mom’s nursing home is demanding a lot of cash, fast. A gifted getaway driver desperately wants to go straight, but he’s towing around a lot of baggage.īeauregard Montage is a good mechanic in a bad fix.

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