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Shop nowBurn What Will Burn
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Learn moreA noirish crime novel set in rural Arkansas from award-winning author C. B. McKenzie.
Bob Reynolds doesn’t recognize the body in the creek, but he does recognize the danger of it. He’s a newcomer to town, not entirely welcome and not entirely on good footing with the sheriff. So far, he’s kept his head down, mostly over the bar at the Crow’s Nest. But he has other interests than drinking and spending his inheritance, including one that goes by the name Tammy Fay Smith and who may have caught the sheriff’s eye as well.
Bob Reynolds would rather pretend he never saw the body, but when it disappears he begins to doubt what little he knew about this secretive town, one that seems to become more unwelcoming by the day. But he can’t just forget the body, despite the advice he’s given to do so, and despite the evidence to suggest that he might be disappearing along with it.
Following his acclaimed, Edgar-nominated debut, C. B. McKenzie’s Burn What Will Burn will appeal to fans of such literary crime authors as Daniel Woodrell, Tom Franklin, Joe R. Lansdale, and Nic Pizzolatto.
CB McKenzie, a Texas native, has been a lifeguard, haute couture model, carpenter, housepainter, waiter, farmhand, teacher, and factory worker in a wide variety of locales around the world, including Hamburg, Miami, Milan, Tokyo, and Tucson. He earned both an MFA and a PhD from the University of Arizona and was a full-time faculty member at Pima Community College. Though he currently teaches at City University of New York, he still keeps his pickups in Tucson and Texas.
Bon Shaw is an avid reader with a passion for linguistics. His resonant narrative and aptitude for accents and dialects invokes a listening experience rich with visceral fervor. When not behind the mic, he enjoys spending time with his friends and family.
Reviews
“Evil comes in all shapes and sizes, and McKenzie gets the best out of that premise in this chilling portrayal of murder and mayhem. Careful development of each personality adds an outstanding facet to the story.”
“Gritty, atmospheric…Among the several entertaining and offbeat characters are a disreputable woman to whom Bob is wildly attracted, a former university professor who leveraged sex from students, and a cafe owner with family issues. The well-executed plot builds to a clever, somewhat farcical ending.”
“Thematically very different than McKenzie’s outstanding first novel. But the prose is just as pure and the story just as riveting.”
“There’s a tightness to life in a small town—part of it is fierce loyalty, part long memory. In Burn What Will Burn, small-town life is rendered a snake-pit where self-interest and self-preservation inform every action. Our guide through the backwaters, diners, and abandoned cabins is Bob Reynolds, a fish-out-of-water weirdly suited to his search for truth in a verdant hollow of lies. CB McKenzie builds a world so compelling that the Little Piney Creek showed up in my dreams. I loved every page.”
“Written in richly poetic language and infused with sly humor, CB McKenzie’s brooding, gothic tale of eccentric characters set in backwoods Arkansas will appeal to readers of Daniel Woodrell and Joe Lansdale.”
“Burn What Will Burn is a natural successor to Bad Country, and it will scorch the literary landscape with perfectly structured sentences and blistering prose.”
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