BLACKTOP WASTELAND  is a crime novel about a diamond heist that feels like it is maybe too easy to believe.  The schemers are an uneasy alliance of poor men and women, black and white, living in the Virginia Tidewater region in a town where the desire to be more, have more, leave and live large haunts.  But in its breakneck twists, the heartbreaking intents, the missteps of its indelible characters, S. A. Cosby is weaving a story about black male identity, about what it means to be from the South and have its history not include your story, and about the pull of family and its confusing messages about love and inheritance.

Cosby was raised in the South, Virginia primarily, and he knows a good muscle car when he sees it.

He first wrote about Beauregard in a short story, SLANT-SIX, which was selected as a distinguished story for Best American Mystery Stories 2016.  He was drawn back to the character of the getaway driver who knows he has to give up the life he loves before he finds himself behind bars.  Encapsulated in his story was the larger story Cosby wanted to tell and knew in his bones.

Virtual Author Visit: S.A. Cosby