When eldest son Roman Carruthers is summoned home after his father's car accident, he finds his younger brother Dante in debt to dangerous criminals and his sister Neveah exhausted from holding the family—and the family business—together. Neveah and their father, who run the Carruthers Crematorium in the run-down central Virginia town of Jefferson Run, see death up close every day. But mortality draws even closer when it becomes clear that the crash that landed their father in a coma was no accident and Dante's recklessness has placed them all in real danger. Roman, a financial whiz with a head for numbers and a talent for making his clients rich, has some money to help buy his brother out of trouble. But in his work with wannabe tough guys, he's forgotten that there are real gangsters out there.
Violent ... The reckless, feckless, secretive, self-punishing Carruthers clan may be hard to like; but when their collective woes are brought into the light of full disclosure, the effect is classically tragic.
An antihero tale, so don’t mistake this for a yarn about a good guy who’s come home to set things right ... An attitude you can strike a match on — and Ashes burns with the flame.
His dialogue...is pitch-perfect: colloquial and idiomatic, reflecting the education and upbringing of his characters—it feels like we’re eavesdropping on real people. A stunning novel.
