Review: Razorblade Tears by S. A. Cosby (2021)

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S. A. Cosby's previous novel, Blacktop Wasteland, was a stunning introduction to this author for me. Besides the well executed crime story of a heist gone wrong and with some of the best depictions of cars I've ever read, it is, above all, about being Black in southern America and about family. I reviewed it here. 

 So I was really excited when Razorblade Tears was released so soon after I read Blacktop Wasteland. Would it hit me as powerfully as did Blacktop Wasteland? Short answer— Yes! Cosby isn't just a very good crime fiction writer, he is a top notch writer, period.

Razorblade Tears is set in the same fictional area of Tidewater Virginia as Blacktop Wasteland — Red Hill. Cosby is from Gloucester Virginia and drew upon Gloucester County, King and Queen County, and Matthews County to establish his settings. I live not far away and really enjoy the authentic sense of place he establishes. I can close my eyes and see where he is writing about.

The Story: After his release from prison where he served time for murder —not his only murder but the one he was convicted for — Ike Randolph has put aside the violent gangbanger life and built a successful landscaping business. Ike wants to do right for his family but he is not culturally or temperamentally abl to accept that his only child, Isiah, is gay. He is further estranged from Isiah when he marries his white husband, Derek Jenkins. Isiah is a journalist and Derek works for a caterer and they have a young daughter.

Then the unthinkable happens, Isiah and Derek are gunned down on the street with the gunman further desecrating the bodies by shooting them in the head. Ike not only has to deal with the loss of his son but regret for pushing him away because he was gay. 

After the funeral, Buddy Lee, father of Derek, approaches Ike with a proposal. The cops aren't getting anywhere with their investigation so he and Ike should try to see what they can find out. Maybe people will talk to them because they aren't cops. Ike initially rejects the idea because it doesn't fit with his current life and his fear that it will awaken the violence that was so much a part of his early life. A racial incident makes Ike change his mind and makes him want justice for the two slain men. Ike and Buddy Lee start their personal investigation questioning friends, acquaintances, and workmates, people that won't talk to the cops. At the same time, the leader of a biker gang has been hired to find  and eliminate someone. How these investigations relate and when will they converge jacks up the tension in the story.

What I liked:

The characters. Ike and Buddy Lee are are wonderfully fleshed out characters. Ike is a Black man, formally a lethal gangbanger known as Riot Randolph. Now he works hard to keep his temper in check and walk a straight line. He is sensitive to what it means to be a Black man living in a rural area of the south and is quick to challenge anyone who disrespects him. Buddy Lee is a redneck and grew up with casual racism as a normal way of life.

Ike and Buddy Lee have some things in common. Both are hard men who have done time and have taken lives. Their approach to problems and impediments, if someone doesn't respond to their questions, leans toward an immediate and precise application of violence. Neither man feels right about how they tread their sons' gayness. My take is that they hope for some sort of atonement for how they acted. They loved their children but couldn't find a way to show it. In their own way they are hurting that they never talked to or tried to understand their children. Now that they are gone they are realizing how much they wish that they had one more chance to tell them that they loved them.

Race. Cosby works racial issues into both Blacktop Wasteland and Razorblade Tears. He doesn't do so as a diatribe but a natural part of the story by pairing a Black man and a redneck. For Buddy Lee it is all too easy to unthinkingly utter a racial slight but Ike isn't the kind of man to let it slide. The two men are going to have to find a way to get along, a mutual language and understanding it they are to reach their goal of justice for their sons.

Buddy Lee has a more difficult time of it due to the casual, everyday racism he's experienced all his life. He frequently finds himself having to back off something he said with "I didn't mean nothing" and "No offense or nothing" which doesn't go a long way to mollifying Ike. Ike has to educate Buddy Lee in the everyday realities of being a Black man in the south. Early on in their relationship, they are riding in Ike's truck and Buddy Lee makes an innocent request to hear some music but the request makes a mean turn very quickly. Reacting to Ike's selection, Buddy Lee comments that country music is probably not an option, figuring that country isn't the kind of music "your kind" like.

"When you or some other white boys say 'your kind' it's like I'm some fucking animal that you trying to put in a cage. I don't like that shit. So that's your one," Ike said.

"My one?"

Your one. I'm gonna let it slide because, like you said, we both might be in a weird state of mind."

"I'm not a racist or nothing. Just don't know a lot of Black people," Buddy Lee stammered.

"I never said you was. You just another white boy that don't have to worry about people like me and the shit we go through."

Cosby does a remarkable job building the character of Buddy Lee. The dialogue he gives Buddy Lee, his way of talking feels right when I say his words in my head. The way the author builds the relationship between two very different men is a standout part of the book for me.

Violence. Razorblade Tears is several magnitudes more violent than Blacktop Wasteland. I wrote earlier that Ike and Buddy Lee are hard men and the direct and decisive application of violence is in their DNA. When Ike has decided to team with Buddy Lee to find their sons's killer, he lays it out:

Once we start, I'm prepared to do whatever it takes to find these sons of bitches. If I got to hurt some people, then that's what I'll do. If I have to punch somebodies ticket, I'll do it.... I'm prepared to bleed.

 Ike knows that once he lets Riot Randolph out, there's no turning back. Buddy Lee is ok with that.

Cosby's depiction of violence is part of what makes Ike and Buddy Lee the kind of men they are. It works in the story. There is once scene that might be a bit over-the-top but is also deeply satisfying so no complaints from me there. The use of violence also makes this an outstanding action thriller and I found myself thinking, "ok, this needs to be a movie".

My Take-Away. On the surface, Razorblade Tears is an action, revenge thriller. But it is much more than that. Throughout we have the themes of family, acceptance, love, regret, pain. Cosby eloquently shows Ike's [and Buddy Lee's] pain:

Tears ran from his eyes and stung his cheeks. Tears for his son. Tears for his wife. Tears for the little girl they had to raise. Tears for who they were and what they all had lost. Each drop felt like it was slicing his face open like a razorblade.

It is also very much about race. The cultural divide between Ike and Buddy Lee couldn't be more profound: a Black man and a white redneck. Buddy Lee has to learn to put aside the racism that has been part of him his whole life and Ike has to learn to trust a man who is the very antithesis of himself.

Razorblade Tears is a multilayered and deeply satisfying book and much more than its root crime story. I highly recommend it. S. A. Cosby is firmly on my "will always read" list of authors.

Keywords: action thriller, race, crime fiction, revenge, cultural divide, southern fiction