An organized crime boss in Kentucky believes money and power are everything until his enterprise collides with a family tragedy, in this gripping noir thriller perfect for fans of S.A. Cosby and Eli Cranor.
THEY ALL FALL THE SAME
by Wesley Browne
Crooked Lane, November 2024
Cannabis kingpin Burl Spoon has reigned over the Jackson County area for three decades, building a powerful backwoods empire. But behind a well-run organization, his personal life is crumbling – his daughter can’t stay clean; his son has hated him since coming out; and after enduring years of infidelity, his wife is straying too. The only person not on his payroll who still adores him is his six-year-old granddaughter, Chelsea.
When his daughter overdoses on heroin laced with fentanyl and one of his employees is murdered, Burl’s retaliation against Clovis Begley, the patriarch of the heroin-dealing family involved in both deaths, is inevitable. As Burl’s plan spirals into a firestorm of vengeance that threatens the safety of his granddaughter, his drive for revenge conflicts with his longing for redemption. On the brink of losing everything, Burl must find a path between retribution and protecting what’s left of his family.
Wesley Browne is the founder and host of Pages & Pints Reading Series at Apollo Pizza in Richmond, Kentucky. He lives with his wife and two sons in Madison County, Kentucky.
Off the coast of West Africa, decades after the dangerous rise of the Atlantic Ocean, the region’s survivors live inside five partially submerged, kilometers-high towers originally created as a playground for the wealthy. Now the towers’ most affluent rule from their lofty perch at the top while the rest are crammed into the dark, fetid floors below sea level.
This darkly amusing and pacey thriller follows hitwoman-turned-suburbanmom Olivia Hodges, who used to do horrible things, back when she worked for a Spanish syndicate. She fled that life and moved home to Australia, building a loving family in a hippie, hipster community where she waits for her past to catch up with her.
Willa believes she’s cursed. Now bad luck has followed her up a mountain.
At the dawn of the 11th Century in a small Icelandic settlement, these words, daubed in blood, herald the arrival of a killer. Soon, a spate of murders threatens the fragile peace between pagans and a growing Christian minority. Arinbjorn, a young pagan farmer resolves to track down the killer before the community is permanently torn apart. His investigations will draw in Freya, an isolated housewife whose secrets could either condemn or free her.