Hard Cash Valley

March 23, 2020
Early in Panowich’s gritty, pull-no-punches third thriller set in Georgia’s McFalls County (after 2019’s Like Lions), two thugs corner Arnie Blackwell, who has just arrived in Jacksonville, Fla., with a suitcase full of cash, in Arnie’s motel room. One of the men accuses Arnie of having stolen a lot of money. When Arnie refuses to explain how he did it and who else was involved, the pair torture him to death. Georgia Bureau of Investigation consultant Dane Kirby flies to Florida to join the FBI in looking into Arnie’s murder. Dane is baffled about the motive, until he learns that the dead man was at the Slasher, the largest cockfighting tournament in the U.S., which was recently held in McFalls County. Arnie somehow managed to bet successfully on every fight in every round, an impossible feat akin to clearing out the MGM Grand “of every dollar in one night.” The violent search by Arnie’s killers doesn’t end with his death. The suspenseful plot is enhanced by Panowich’s gifts at making even walk-on characters memorable. Fans of Ace Atkins’s Quinn Colson series will be pleased. 75,000-copy announced first printing. Agent: Nat Sobel, Sobel Weber Assoc.

Starred review from March 1, 2020
Make room for this splendid genre-bender, a crime novel with emotional resonance and a steady flow of fine writing. Plus staggering plot twists, jaw-dropping revelations, and enough suspense to fill two books. On the first page, we meet Arnie Blackwell, hiding from people he's robbed. Standard crime-story stuff, but hold on. Who is this mysterious Willie person Arnie cries out for as his life leaves him? The question haunts the rest of the narrative as one fascinating incident is followed by another. We witness a cockfight. We meet enigmatic FBI Agent Rosalita Velasquez and the mysterious Gwen?and come to wish we hadn't. We get to know Georgia investigator Dane Kirby, who does the damaged-detective bit one better: he is really doom-haunted. And we can bask in explosions of luscious wordsmithing, as when "the Georgia sun had busted the afternoon wide open." Finally, what one skeptical cop calls "a real whodunit" stands revealed after pages of hints that only tease. That's when we learn who Willie is. We get to watch as he calls up the fires of hell. A first-rate thriller, lavishly decked out in high style.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

Starred review from May 1, 2020

In this delectable rural noir by Panowich (Like Lions), set in the hills of McFalls County, GA, ex-fire investigator and current Georgia Bureau of Investigation freelancer Dane Kirby gets called in to a murder investigation that quickly connects to a Filipino crime lord, an illegal cockfighting ring, and the disappearance of a child who has an uncanny connection with birds. As Dane's wife and daughter were killed in a Fourth of July accident, a tragedy looms over him. Panowich's prose is languid and easygoing as a back-county road as a stoic Dane, alongside FBI agent Roselita Velasquez, confronts the local crime lords who have a longstanding presence in the area--and with him. Well-developed side characters from crime vicitms to fellow FBI agents fill in the corners of the author's world. A rote shootout at the story's end mars an otherwise excellent novel. VERDICT Good rural mysteries excel at showing how both the land and the law that governs it are deeply personal, and Panowich knows the residents of the Georgia foothills down to his bones. Perfect for fans of Attica Locke or Laura McHugh. [See Prepub Alert, 10/28/19.]--Gregg Winsor, Johnson Cty. Lib., Overland Park, KS

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2019

Panowich again returns to the territory of his breaking-big debut, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist Bull Mountain, introducing end-of-his-rope Dane Kirby, a McFalls County/Bull Mountain denizen and former arson investigator. Called in by the FBI to consult on a murder in Jacksonville, FL, Dale gets caught up in efforts to locate victim Arnie Blackwell's younger brother, a numbers genius on the autistic spectrum being sought by a bunch of bad guys for his skills.

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.