Lost River

March 23, 2020
In this powerful standalone from Scott (the Texas Border series), the arrival of new, fentanyl-laced heroin from Mexico has led to an unprecedented number of overdoses in the small town of Angel, Ky. EMT-in-training Trey Dorado, the son of a cop, sees the devastating impact first-hand every day, including the death of the former police chief’s wife. Dorado, who consoles himself with the knowledge he’s saved a few lives and is haunted by the rest, is called to a bloody scene at the Glasser family compound in a nearby town. Most of the bullet-riddled bodies are members of the notorious Glasser clan, which has held sway in the region for generations, making the natural transition from moonshine to marijuana, methamphetamines, and now heroin. DEA special agent Casey Alexander, who has ghosts of her own following a traumatic assignment in the Southwest, enlists Dorado to help navigate the complex case, which has deep ties to the local community. Scott, a 25-year veteran of the DEA, writes with authority about the drug crisis. Don Winslow fans won’t want to miss this wrenching thriller. Agent: Carlisle Webber, CK Webber Assoc.

April 15, 2020
In this thriller written by a federal agent, the Drug Enforcement Administration investigates a "firestorm of fatal ODs" in a small Kentucky town. Special Agent Casey Alexander and her partner have been targeting the Glasser family "forever." The Glassers control the drug trade in Angel, Kentucky, but one day, they are shotgunned to death in their home. The Angel PD finds, among other horrors, a woman with wildflower tattoos on her back and her head blown off, one arm extended trying to reach her unharmed baby. But "Little Paris" Glasser is still alive, and he's the worst of them, "five feet of the devil....And every fucking inch of him hell." The agents need every bit of their steel-spike toughness to deal with this demon, who smokes a mix of crank and wasp killer out of a 60-watt light bulb and sells drugs in glassine bags with pictures of dancing skeletons and the label "DOA." As the law closes in, the action never stops until the final bullet flies in the inevitable, explosive confrontation. Scott's writing is as vivid as it can get, with stunning lines like "Dillon Mackey hits his first home run ever, just as his mama, Kara, drops dead in the bleachers." A character named Renfro is "an absence of light...vacant, a hole in the world." The f-bombs fly as well, which would merit no mention except that there are enough to fill up their own chapter, and they lose their effing impact after the first few hundred. So Alexander and her partner may stop Little Paris or not, but the drug crisis goes on. This grim, gritty novel captures the feeling of hopelessness that the opioid epidemic brings. As Alexander muses, "Sometimes stories just don't have happy endings." Such as this one. Well-told but raw as an open wound and not for the squeamish.

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May 1, 2020
The citizens of Angel, Kentucky, came into the world with little money and less hope. Once a coal mine gave them a living, but it's about played out. They've found a replacement: opioids. Too bad the little pills are addictive, deadly, and on the edge of the law; nearly everyone in Angel has lost a relative to the graveyard or the prison. Too bad, too, that the jobs this poisonous stuff opened up are controlled by a crime family that's been "a cancer on this town, black and sure and final." There's no relief even when most of the family are gunned down; DEA Special Agent Casey Alexander has a sense that the local cops are deep into the town's corruption. Author Scott pushes his narrative to its wild conclusion in rich, organic prose. ("Holding his hands, holding his head in her own bloody hands . . . . ") A 100-page point-of-view shift near the end almost derails the action, but it's the only false note in a sympathetic portrayal of people who make bad choices because there aren't any others on offer.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)