Just like his daddy before him, Beauregard “Bug” Montage made a name for himself as the best “wheelman” around, but that was 15 years ago. Since then, he left that life behind him, opened his own successful garage, got a wife and family, and settled down in Red Hill County. Things were good, too, at least until a competing garage opened up across town offering services at below break-even prices and coaxing away all but his most loyal customers. With money tight, necessities such as eyeglasses and braces for his young sons stretch things even thinner.

Already short for this month’s garage mortgage, his mother’s nursing home calls him. Medicare has re-evaluated his mother’s benefits, and she owes them almost $50,000 for just the past two months! If he can’t make up the shortfall, Beau’s mother will be out on her ear. And as if that is not enough, his daughter, a result of a teenage liaison, who’s hanging around with some low-life-looking, gangster-wannabe, tells him she won’t be going to college in the fall (and getting away from the boyfriend) because of the lack of funding. Against his wife, Kia’s wishes, he puts out the word that he may be available for the right “opportunity.” Just one more job to get them out of the red and back on their feet; they’re that close to paying off the garage.

He doesn’t have to wait long. An old acquaintance, Ronnie Sessions, has stumbled across some information that a certain jewelry store is holding an unaccounted for stash of diamonds in their safe. A successful robbery of this magnitude could set them all up for a very long time and significantly ease the financial pressure in Beauregard’s life. But Ronnie is in a hurry and doesn’t quite have all the facts regarding the jewelry store and its secret cache of gems. Even with Beauregard doing all he can to ensure the heist goes as smoothly as possible, things don’t go as planned. A man is killed, and the crew quickly discovers the jewelry store was the front for a much larger criminal operation being run by a very, very bad man who wants his diamonds back. Working with the unreliable Ronnie and brother, Reggie, Beauregard must figure out how to clean up the mess and keep his family safe from the evil hidden behind the jewelry store.

Blacktop Wasteland grabbed me from the very first page and never let go! Although Beauregard Montage is not a perfect man, he was a perfect character. He is fighting a battle inside himself to be one of two different men: the man he was before – the wheelman, the adrenaline-fueled magician of a driver or the loving, responsible, husband and father, the successful caretaker of his family. A plethora of extraordinary characters surround him: his wife, Kia, who knows all his secrets; his two sons, Javon and Darren; Kelvin, the cousin that always has his back; Boonie, the father figure; and the hot mess of a crew: the Sessions brothers and the cocky, Quan. Even the evil Lazarus “Lazy” Mothersbaugh and his awful henchmen are heinously superb. They work together and against each other, magically creating dire situations and I-didn’t-see-that-coming plot twists.

The author places his story in a location where industry and gainful employment have gradually dried up and slipped away, and the very landscape oozes poverty and desperation. I could clearly visualize the setting, feel the heat and the mosquitoes, and hear the cicadas.

But the story! The story evoked so many emotions. From page one, I wanted this flawed man to come out on top. I wanted and needed him to overcome all the obstacles thrown in his path. I wanted to hear his youngest son’s giggle. BLACKTOP WASTELAND is a high-octane page-turner. I laughed and cried, and my heart was in my throat more than once. This is a definite ‘must-read’ of a book.

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