Bull Mountain

May 1, 2015
Hillbilly noir goes literary in Panowich's debut, which is part crime fiction and part family saga. As an outcast from his family, Sheriff Clayton Burroughs knows "The world is a broken place sometimes." Above northern Georgia's Waymore Valley, where Clayton patrols, generations of Burroughses have ruled Bull Mountain, keeping the family whole with moonshine, then marijuana, and now meth. Bull Mountain is a kingdom, its ruler the sheriff's brother Halford, clad in his own "warped sense of honor." The uneasy truce between Clayton and Hal fractures when Special Agent Simon Holly of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms arrives. Holly wants Clayton to persuade Hal to rat out his connection to a Jacksonville motorcycle gang, soldiers for a gun-running, meth-chemical supplier masquerading as a reputable businessman. In return, Hal won't be prosecuted. Thus unfolds a Shakespearean tragedy, a bloody family implosion. In the fast-moving narrative, shifting from Burroughs to Burroughs over the past half-century, Panowich chronicles murders, hijackings, and gory beat-downs. Haunted by family sins, Clayton once lived in the bottle, which was creating "a fine layer of rust slowly decaying and dissolving his marriage." Clayton's wife, Kate, steel-hearted and loyal, declares "I will not let some cop...drag you down a hole you can't climb out of to help a man who doesn't want or deserve your help." A one-time Burroughs enforcer, Val, "a hulk of a man," reminds Clayton, "It was your grandfather let loose the demons on this mountain." However, there's a dark secret (a twist handled nicely by Panowich) that pulls Hal, sawed-off shotgun in hand, down from Bull Mountain. Ever true to his theme, Panowich then moves to a bloody, and believable, reconciliation. Panowich deftly delves into "something deeper than bone" between fathers and sons, between the land and its people.

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Starred review from May 1, 2015
The opening chapters of this dazzling novel can give the impression that we're in hillbilly heaven, rollin' smokes and chawin' plugs and finding it hilarious when a dim-witted deputy fills a cop car with Styrofoam peanuts. Keep reading. The wily author uses this soft opening to introduce a powerful retelling of the Cain and Abel story. Halford Burroughs, mean as a snake, is running the family's moon-and-meth business in the Georgia mountains. Brother Clayton has outraged everybody by becoming sheriff of a little town in the valley. One day a most likable federal agent turns up in Clayton's office with a plan to end the poisonous enterprise and save the family, and the proper narrative begins. Panowich tells his story in lengthy, nicely worked chapters reminiscent of John Steinbeck, who did his own brother-versus-brother story in East of Eden. Both write in a flowing, textured, understated style that is such a pleasure to read we don't realize we're being set up for a series of uppercuts. They come in revelations accompanied by gunfire. Read and recommend to anyone who follows country noir or savors delicious prose.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

June 1, 2015

The Burroughs family has ruled the drug trade on Georgia's Bull Mountain for over 70 years. Bad blood between brothers has been a constant through three generations, with the current warfare playing out between Sheriff Clayton Burroughs and the family business head, Halford Burroughs. But the arrival of federal agent Simon Holly sparks the simmering hatred into a conflagration from which no one emerges unscathed. Sociopaths, manipulators, and pathological liars abound, with the roads that led them each to their own brand of evil well developed. The author delivers characters with depth, a lushly described setting, and an intergenerational battle between good and evil. After many twists and turns, the story ends with a welcome surprise. VERDICT Debut novelist Panowich vividly details the depravity that is part of the meth business. His book will appeal to readers of Wiley Cash, Ron Rash, and Daniel Woodrell for the way in which it brings the landscape and culture of rural Appalachia to life. [See Prepub Alert, 2/2/15.]--Sharon Mensing, Emerald Mountain Sch., Steamboat Springs, CO

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2015

For generations, Clayton Burroughs's family has run moonshine, weed, and meth over six state lines from their home on Georgia's Bull Mountain, but renegade Clayton is sheriff of a nearby community. Then an agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms comes knocking, and his plans to shut down the family's operations could be bad news for Clayton.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.