Synopsis:
Razorblade Tears
A Black father. A white father. Two murdered sons. A quest for vengeance.
Ike Randolph has been out of jail for fifteen years, with not so much as a speeding ticket in all that time. But a Black man with cops at the door knows to be afraid.
The last thing he expects to hear is that his son Isiah has been murdered, along with Isiah’s white husband, Derek. Ike had never fully accepted his son but is devastated by his loss.
Derek’s father Buddy Lee was almost as ashamed of Derek for being gay as Derek was ashamed his father was a criminal. Buddy Lee still has contacts in the underworld, though, and he wants to know who killed his boy.
Ike and Buddy Lee, two ex-cons with little else in common other than a criminal past and a love for their dead sons, band together in their desperate desire for revenge. In their quest to do better for their sons in death than they did in life, hardened men Ike and Buddy Lee will confront their own prejudices about their sons and each other, as they rain down vengeance upon those who hurt their boys.
Awards/Nominations:
Barry Award for Best Novel (2022)
Macavity Award for Best Mystery Novel (2022)
Anthony Award for Best Hardcover Novel (2022)
ITW Thriller Award Nominee for Hardcover Novel and for Audiobook (2022)
Los Angeles Times Book Prize Nominee for Mystery/Thriller (2021)
Edgar Award Nominee for Best Novel (2022)
Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Mystery & Thriller (2021)
Book of the Month Book of the Year Award Nominee (2021)
RUSA CODES Reading List for Adrenaline (2022)
Edition:
Hardcover (purchased from Book of the Month Club – this is my referral link, so feel free to use it if you want to sign up! 😎)
Other BoTM Club books I’ve reviewed.
Trigger Warnings:
Hover for Trigger WarningsMy Thoughts:
Razorblade Tears is a truly remarkable story. And I don’t think I’m being overly dramatic here. It is, on the outside, a story of vengeance and regret. But just below the surface it is also a story of becoming better than you were. Ike and Buddy Lee are both intolerant in their own (and sometimes in the same) way. Watching the two of them try to overcome the terrible things they’ve been conditioned to believe about others in the wake of the murder of their married sons.
“I ain’t gonna lie and say I get you, because I don’t. I can’t even pretend I know what it must be like to be… you. But if all this has taught me one thing, it’s that it ain’t about me and what I get. It’s about letting people be who they are. And being who you are shouldn’t be a death sentence.”
And the lengths they go to to not only overcome their own prejudices, but also to avenge their sons’ deaths with extreme prejudice (sorry, I had to – don’t come for me) is truly astounding. Their journey is astonishingly violent, but it’s also…understandable. At least, I feel like I understand why they do what they do. It’s what they know. And, in Ike’s case, it unfortunately happens to be what he’s very, very good at.
There’s a really wonderful, touching dichotomy of feeling in Ike, in particular. He’s in the middle of a high-stakes rollercoaster ride here. On the one hand, there is nothing he wouldn’t do to avenge the son he didn’t support enough in life (he feels deeply guilty). And on the other, he’s hesitant to jump back into the very thing that landed him in prison for a large chunk of Isiah’s life. But not that hesitant. His guilt and shame over the way he let his prejudice strain his relationship with Isiah past the breaking point won’t allow him to do nothing.
“That was the thing about violence. When you went looking for it you definitely were going to find it. It just wouldn’t be at a time of your own choosing. It jumped up and splattered your nice new boots before you were really ready”
Go into Razorblade Tears expecting something that will make you laugh and cry, all while you drown in almost unbearable tension. But also go into it expecting something that may, weirdly and violently restore some of your faith in human society’s ability to shift itself out of the doom spiral it is currently caught in.
Rating:
Razorblade Tears is superb. Now I’m excited to figure out where the hell my copy of Blacktop Wasteland is hiding so I can dig in to that next.
Razorblade Tears By S.A. Cosby Flatiron Books ISBN: 9781250252715 Hardcover, Paperback, E-book, Audio 336 Pages
