Two Enthusiastic Book Recommendations!

Please go buy these books

Just a quick note to say hi, and recommend two novels that have recently blown me away, both by an emerging, still little-known author (though I’m going to do everything in my power to change that). His name is Andrew Edwards, and the books are King of Dogs, and Crowbar. Anyone with a passing interest in fiction, or who used to enjoy fiction but hasn’t found anything worth the time lately, please check these books out.

I recently read his new book, Crowbar, and it’s been lodged in my brain ever since. The story is complex, dark, not for the faint of heart. Most fiction these days is read by, and written for, women and children, but not Edwards’s novels.

The story of Crowbar is wild (Rhodesian mercenaries, Robert Maxwell, MKULTRA-style rogue intel ops, shadowy cults... a mindf*ck, as the kids used to say), but I was so struck by the quality of the writing that I started re-reading his first book, King of Dogs, as soon as I put Crowbar down. I had read King of Dogs some time ago, but it’s even better than I remember. Near-future America experiencing a Soviet-style slow-burn collapse, as private military contractors, cartels, militias, and gangs fight to monopolize territory and resources. And that’s just the setting - the story is about loyalty, honor, and commitment, and somehow Edwards pulls that off without ever being corny.

I’m not joking. We have a real-deal, genuine talent on our hands, and he’s one of us. Start with King of Dogs, as it provides an easier entry point than Crowbar, which reads like a co-project of William S. Burroughs and Cormac McCarthy. Surely, I’m exaggerating? I’m really not. I don’t throw comparisons like that around lightly. This guy can fucking write. I’ve read a lot of fiction over the years, and I haven’t been this excited about a new author in a long time. Go buy these two books, please. You will not regret it (well, you might regret reading Crowbar, but in a good way).