-- This title will ship on or after June 10, 2025 --

Award-winning, New York Times bestselling author S. A. Cosby returns with King of Ashes, a Godfather-inspired Southern crime epic and dazzling family drama.

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. As his bargaining chips go up in smoke, Roman realizes that he has only one thing left to offer to save his brother: himself, and his own particular set of skills.

Roman begins his work for the criminals while Neveah tries to uncover the long-ago mystery of what happened to their mother, who disappeared when they were teenagers. But Roman is far less of a pushover than the gangsters realize. He is willing to do anything to save his family. Anything.

Because everything burns.

BIO

S.A. Cosby is an American author of "Southern noir" crime fiction. He resides in Gloucester, Virginia, on the York River. Cosby has published four crime novels: My Darkest Prayer, Blacktop Wasteland, Razorblade Tears, and All the Sinners Bleed.

REVIEWS

“Pick up the novel everyone will be talking about. . . The flashy sequences of violence feel apt for TV (Netflix, along with Steven Spielberg’s production outfit and the Obamas’ media company, is working on a series), but the novel’s real draw is the quieter ache of a family torn apart.” -- The Atlantic

“A fast-paced thriller that will have readers asking whether the ends justify the means if there is no end in sight. . . Reminiscent of the great tragedies, this is Cosby at his best.” -- Library Journal, starred review

“Cosby is one of the biggest names in the crime/thriller world these days. . . King of Ashes takes its cue from The Godfather – an ailing patriarch, a family falling apart and a son who comes back home to hold it all together.” -- NPR.com

“A Southern crime drama to the tune of “The Godfather.” -- USA TODAY

“A thrilling and dark take on a twisted American Dream cum Shakespearean tragedy. . . Cosby crafts an exquisite thriller; the pages whir by on superb prose. . . Building to a cataclysmic finale, Cosby once again propels readers on one hell of a ride. Excellent.” -- Deadly Pleasures, A+

[H]   Flatiron Books: Pine & Cedar /  June 10, 2025