Hard Cash Valley Review

Author: Brian Panowich
Series: Bull Mountain #3
Genre: Southern Noir (Grit Lit)
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Release Date: May 5, 2020
Purchase Link: Amazon

My Rating: 5 Astounding Hearts

*Special thanks to Minotaur Books for a paperback arc of this book! #MinotaurInfluencers
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Return to McFalls County and Bull Mountain in Hard Cash Valley, where Brian Panowich weaves another masterful tale of Southern Noir. The synopsis can be read following my review.

Review:
Two things occurred as I read the final page of Hard Cash Valley - I wiped the tears off my face and struggled with a deep rooted desire to start over at the beginning and read it again.  Wow. Just wow.  This story is a powerfully moving illustration of Southern Noir at its finest.  This is why I read and love Grit Lit, especially from authors who can deliver it with heart as Brian Panowich has done in Hard Cash Valley.  Not only has he rendered a dark, gritty, graphic tale of anguish, vengeance, and tragedy, he's also spun a tale of redemption, hope, and love.  A story that will linger with me for some time.  One I know I'll eventually reread.

The story begins with lowlife scum Arnie Blackwell on the run with a suitcase full of money and improbable dreams.  When his mutilated body is later found in a Florida motel, GBI Agent Dane Kirby is called away from the crime scene of another murder in McFalls County, Georgia, to investigate. Despite his protests, Kirby's ordered to partner up with reluctant FBI Agent Roselita Velasquez to find Blackwell's missing eleven year old brother who has Asperger's syndrome and an uncanny gift for numbers, before the killers do.  With time running out, the agents are astounded to realize where the dark, bloody, twisted trail leads - a place where morality is sorely lacking and hard cash and swift vengeance are abundant.  A place where violence is bred and law is scorned.  A place where Dane Kirby has history . . . and a score to settle.  That's all you'll get from me about the story other than to say it's intense, raw, gutsy, and absolutely riveting. While it's listed as book 3 of the Bull Mountain series, it tells the story of a completely different family and stands alone.

Panowich is a skillful master of tightly woven plot lines brought to life through vivid prose and dimensional characters who are deeply flawed - some worthy of redemption, some not.  The author pairs Kirby - a good man with a broken heart and a strong sense of justice who's killing time while mourning ghosts from the past with Roselita - a smart and spunky spitfire of a woman with a chip on her shoulder who often speaks before she thinks. Together, they form the perfect odd couple who bicker a lot and trust little.  Through graphic prose, Panowich's authentic descriptive settings tease all the senses, emphasizing the contrast between the beauty of the valley and the dangerous reality of The Farm while a dark tone of trepidation and malice intensifies at a steady pace.  All of it together adds up to one of the best Southern Noir books I've read in a long time.  Hard Cash Valley claims a spot on my 2020 Favorite's Shelf.  Highly Recommended!

My Rating:  5 Astounding Hearts

Cross My Heart . . . xxx

♥Sandra♥

Synopsis:

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.