TOP 25 OF 2025: 15-11
- wildremuda
- 13 hours ago
- 2 min read
We come to the middle of the list where the authors find heart and humanity in their violent often pitch black worlds.
DONNYBROOK by Frank Bill- A rollicking, violent epic look at rural America with several working class anti-heroes on their way to a meth kingpin's compound for a fight competition with a purse that can change their lives. You can feel every punch.
TRICKY by Josh Stallings- A cop from LA.'s cowboy culture catches a homicide case where the main suspect is a former gang enforcer who may or may not be be faking a mental disability. A great police thriller that also serves as a meditation on the nature of morality.
COTTONWOOD by Scott Phillips- Phillips western noir with a photographer involved in a love triangle involving a businessman investing in the town due to the railroad he believes will be coming through and a criminal family running a stage way station. A funny, dark, detailed, and entertaining take on when one part of The West became The Midwest.
THE MAN WHO CAME UPTOWN by George Pelecanos- A young criminal discovers a joy of books that can turn his life around just when a corrupt cop uses him for his unlawful side hustle. A wonderful humanist celebration of redemption and reading.
RED SKY LAMENT by Edward Wright- Each book featuring John Ray Horn got a hundred times better than the previous, beginning with the First, Clea's Moon and ending with this one. The washed-up postwar cowboy actor who now works as a for the floating casino owned by the man who played his Indian sidekick, helps an ex-lover's blacklisted uncle find out who named him. The search leads to murder and intrigue as well as as finding echoes of the George W. Bush years when it was written that are even more prevalent now.