My Darkest Prayer

SA Cosby writes a solid book. Great characters. Good dialogue. Nice plotting. Solid premise. I enjoy his work a lot.

If I have a single complaint: Dude uses similies like Mormons use sugar.
I like his writing because the prose is languid and interesting, but too often a ham-handed simile takes me right out of the flow. They're frequent and often awkward.

I mean, I guess it's his writing style...but as an editor and former writing instructor, they'd be the first things I'd tell him to work on cutting down.

Also, while I like Nathan Waymaker as a main character, he suffers from the author-insert-wannabe syndrome that so many main characters suffer from. He's stronger than everyone else. He's tougher than everyone else. He's smarter and more well-read than anyone else. He's a former Marine. He gets to have sex with the hot pornstar who is impressed by his sexual ability. Every woman in the book hits on him.

It gets ridiculous.

Otherwise, I'm very much looking forward to his next book.

I try my hardest to give honest reviews of everything I read, even if it’s from my favorite author. If you know me, I’m a huge fan of S.A. Cosby and have rated none of his books less than four stars. That changes today. The only thing I enjoyed about the book was the plot.

A pastor dies from an alleged suicide. Suspecting murder, some church members hire an ex-cop to investigate. There’s action, violence, murder, and everything else I love about his books.

So what’s the problem you may ask?

Now, this might be odd for some women who think all men are alike, but hear me out. The protagonist who is an ex-cop spoke and behaved like a juvenile. His attitude towards women was stereotypical of men. Most of us don’t talk like this. The author overly sexualize every female character in this book. It’s pretty cringy, and I absolutely hated it. It occurred too often and took away from the story. For the people thinking I’m describing smut, I’m not. Just creepy juvenile BS. I almost DNF’d several times because of it. It made the plot take a hit. The only reason I kept reading was because I knew it was his first novel. I repeatedly had to tell myself that this is the guy who wrote Razorblade Tears, All the Sinners Bleed, and Blacktop Wasteland. I’m still a huge fan and can’t wait for King of Ashes. With all that be being said, I’m giving this book three stars, and it's clearly my least favorite.

shawn andre cosby literally never fails to amaze me 

I am in love with SA Cosby's worlds and My Darkest Prayer is another brilliant, albeit less polished installment. It's an early work and shorter than his more famous later books, but it crackles just the same. First and foremost, what I love about his stories is his setting. Having spent so much time in Virginia, I love to read about ole Newport News in just about all of them. I went to high school in the Blues so I know exactly the areas he's referencing and it's a thrill that never gets old. Then his relationships. He has such a poetic, and at the same time, real way of describing his characters- their appearances, their back stories, their choices, their actions. All of it.

This protagonist is so powerful- a biracial undertaker- plus a whole lot more- but that's not for me to say. That's for the reader to discover. I loved this undertaker story- my first and I learned a lot about the business. I pass SA's books to any & all folks I meet who love the crime genre. If you haven't read him yet, you must.