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Start giftingA Swollen Red Sun
This audiobook uses AI narration.
We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn moreGod, drugs, corruption, and morality come together in this gripping tale of desperation.
In Gasconade County, Missouri—once called the meth capital of the world—Deputy Sheriff Dale Banks discovers $52,000 hidden in the broken-down trailer that Jerry Dean Skaggs uses for cooking crystal. And he takes it. Banks knows what he did was wrong, but he did it for all the right reasons. At least, he thinks so. But for every wrong deed, there is a consequence.
Jerry Dean can't afford to lose that $52,000—he owes it to his partners and to a crooked cop. He also can't afford to disappoint the crazed and fearsome Reverend Butch Pogue, who is expecting Jerry Dean to deliver the chemicals the reverend needs for his next batch of meth. To avoid the holy man's wrath, Jerry Dean sets in motion a series of events that will threaten Banks' family, his life, and everything he thinks he knows about the world.
Matthew McBride
burst onto the crime-writing scene with his shocking and visceral short stories
of bad men and good guns. His powerful first novel, Frank Sinatra in a Blender, confirms what noir and crime pros were
murmuring online for months—this guy is the one to watch. McBride lives on a
farm in rural Missouri with his wife and a bull named Hemingway. He started
writing on the assembly line at a Chrysler plant in Saint Louis, where he worked
for thirteen years. Now he’s a force to be reckoned with as a crime writer.
Welcome a new voice that’s raw, wild, and completely original.
John McLain is an actor, professional voice talent, and Earphones Award–winning narrator. He has been a finalist for the prestigious Audie Award for best narration. On stage, he has appeared in The Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, Amahl & the Night Visitors, and The Music Man.
Reviews
“Memorable, unique, and, at times, even haunting. Every character rings true from the feckless to the noble to the downright frightening…[With] dark country humor, A Swollen Red Sun is a must-read.”
“Uncompromisingly gritty but surprisingly tender and quite funny…McBride’s novel combines the backwoods creepiness of Nic Pizzolatto’s HBO series True Detective, the understated country humor of Johnny Shaw’s Big Maria, and the sensitivity to character and nuance of Daniel Woodrell’s Winter’s Bone.”
“Rough and ready suspense, encompassing a wide array of characters from the sour side of life, and smashing them together with vigorous and blunt prose.”
“This novel has it all: guns, corruption, immorality, all fused together in a blistering narrative.”
“A Swollen Red Sun, simply put, is an epic piece of modern crime fiction. But within that, McBride never loses his sense of powerful intimacy with the characters, their lives, their families, and their demons.”
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