Recommended Read: Hard Cash Valley by Brian Panowich

Closing out another week (almost!) with a recommended read for y’all! Today I'm recommending Hard Cash Valley by Brian Panowich - Writer. This one starts by quickly slapping you around and then simply belts you in the mouth and then really does not stop the beatings until it finally tires and says it’s time to let you go.

When it was over, I was exhausted and also satisfied and knew it was time for some more sedate military history, my usual diet of spies and explosions and hand to hand combat and island invasions. It carries a nifty and 'you gotta pay attention’ plot structure including a very weird, malevolent antagonist with a weapon of choice that is grotesquely effective. ‘Flay’ is too mild a word.

A steady diet of this kind of crime/mystery genre would drive me quickly to a mental gastroenterologist but in random doses like this, it’s really good stuff. If you are a fan of high test, hot fueled, action jackson crime fiction, this one will grab and shake you.

Fully loaded with bad language and worse behavior, Hard Cash is jam up good but I will never tell you it is a ‘fun’ read; makes John Grisham look like a wimp.

Take a flyer here. Use Vernon’s Rule; if you’re 60 pages in and it’s not happening for you, then lay it down and go find something else. I stayed with it and was glad I did.