Ozark Dogs
-
-
5.0 • 1 Rating
-
-
- $11.99
Publisher Description
In this Southern thriller, two families grapple with the aftermath of a murder in their small Arkansas town.
After his son is convicted of capital murder, Vietnam War veteran Jeremiah Fitzjurls takes over the care of his granddaughter, Joanna, raising her with as much warmth as can be found in an Ozark junkyard outfitted to be an armory. He teaches her how to shoot and fight, but there is not enough training in the world to protect her when the dreaded Ledfords, notorious meth dealers and fanatical white supremacists, come to collect on Joanna as payment for a long-overdue blood debt.
Headed by rancorous patriarch Bunn and smooth-talking, erudite Evail, the Ledfords have never forgotten what the Fitzjurls family did to them, and they will not be satisfied until they have taken an eye for an eye. As they seek revenge, and as Jeremiah desperately searches for his granddaughter, their narratives collide in this immersive story about family and how far some will go to honor, defend—or in some cases, destroy it.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Fully realized characters lift Cranor's grim second novel (after 2022's Don't Know Tough). A dispute over a woman led Tom Fitzjurls to kill Rudnick Ledford by shooting him in the back. The open-and-shut case landed Tom in prison, sentenced to life without parole. That left his father, Jeremiah, a Vietnam vet who operates a car junkyard in Taggard, Ark., to raise Tom's infant daughter, Jo, after she was abandoned by her mother. Now a high school senior, Jo is chafing to escape her guardian's tight restrictions on her social life, even as Jeremiah struggles with accepting that she'll be moving on. Meanwhile, Rud's brother, Evail, a meth dealer, ex-con, and white supremacist who narrowly avoided being killed at the same time as his sibling, believes he's found the perfect way to get revenge on the Fitzjurls family. Evail's threat to Jo forces Jeremiah, who was nicknamed the Judge during his tour of duty for his marksmanship, to team up with several allies he doesn't fully trust to protect her. The author has a superior gift for capturing the cadences and feel of Southern small towns. Greg Iles fans will be eager for Cranor's next.
