S.A. Cosby’s 2020 release Blacktop Wasteland was nominated for all kinds of awards. If Razorblade Tears, this year’s standalone, isn’t nominated, something is wrong with the system. It’s one of the best books I’ve read this year.

On the surface, the only thing Ike Randolph and Buddy Lee Jenkins have in common is the fact that they’re both ex-cons. Ike is a big black man who served his time in Coldwater State Penitentiary, and hasn’t had as much as a speeding ticket in the last fifteen years. He owns a landscaping business, and employs a large team. He and his wife Mya raised their son, Isiah.

Buddy Lee Jenkins is a redneck, a good ol’ boy who served time, and came out again to continue to drink and run around. He lives in a rundown trailer, and his body is in about the same shape as the trailer, falling apart. He’s alienated from most of his family, including his son, Derek.

But, the two men do have something else in common. Their sons, Isiah and Derek, are married and they have a little girl, Arianna. At least that’s the story before the two men are shot dead on the streets of Richmond, Virginia, in what appears to be a targeted attack. Neither man may have accepted their sons’ lives, but when someone vandalizes their tombstone, Ike wants revenge. Ike teams up with Buddy Lee. As they question people, using violence when necessary, they realize someone with a great deal of power wanted their sons dead.

While Razorblade Tears is an action-packed, violentt story of two grieving fathers determined to revenge their sons’ murders, it’s a deeper story as well. It’s the story of two men who come to realize they have more in common than they ever thought. Both men rejected their sons. Now, Buddy Lee would give anything to tell Derek he loved him. And, Ike? “He was just another asshole that didn’t understand who or what Derek was. That was something he and Buddy Lee had in common.” As they plow their way through motorcycle gangs and anyone who stands in their way, they both realize they’re human, full of flaws. They’re Southern men who loved their sons, but couldn’t accept them as gay men.

It’s the revelations, the discoveries, not the revenge that changes these two men. As they hunt the men who killed their sons, they have surprising conversations in which they dig into their own stories. Mya’s the one one who reminds them that sometimes acceptance just comes from being respectful of other people. It cost them so much to see their sons. Ike’s statement is one he never would have made before teaming up with Buddy Lee. “It’s about letting people be who they are. And being who you are shouldn’t be a god-damn death sentence,”

Razorblade Tears is a powerful story of revenge, but, even more, of redemption. It’s been optioned for a film. If the film does the theme of the book justice, if it’s not just a violent action film, it will be an unforgettable movie. S.A. Cosby’s book itself, the story of two fathers seeking their own inner peace while having to seek it violently, is unforgettable.

Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby. Flatiron Books, 2021. ISBN 9781250252708 (hardcover), 336p.

FTC Full Disclosure – I received a .PDF to read for a journal.