Review: King of Ashes: A Novel by S. A. Cosby

 

A frequent theme of S. A. Cosby’s work, beyond racism, is the idea of a family haunted by a horrible tragic legacy. A legacy that goes back decades and is once again brought to light, eventually, in the here and now, by a massive triggering event. Suck is the case in the latest book, King of Ashes: A Novel.

 

Roman Carruthers runs a wealth management firm in Atlanta. His clients, rappers, and others, sometimes need creative accounting. Sometimes they need a problem fixed and Roman turns those situations over to Khali. Not only is a friend from way back, the man has skills, and has put them to use in a variety of ways for various clients of the company, Carruthers and Associates. Roman has some of the best people in the business and that is a good thing because, as the novel begins, he has to go home to Virginia as his dad is in the hospital and in a coma.

 

It doesn’t play to be in a car hit by a freight train. He was and he may not survive. The Carruthers family is a legend in Jefferson Run, Virginia. Part of that is the fact that his parents, built from the ground up, a crematorium business that has been used for decades by families from miles around. While that is very positive, the other part of the legend is that after their mom vanished without a trace a number of years ago, quite a few folks became convinced that their father killed their mom and burned up the body and all the evidence.

 

For Roman, Neveah, and Dante, that disappearance and resulting speculation has haunted them nearly their entire lives. They were kids when it happened and their childhoods ended the day she vanished.

 

Roman, the oldest, eventually went on to college and has a well-paying life down in Atlanta. Neveah stepped into their mom’s shoes and took over taking care of dad and keeping the business going. The youngest, Dante, is circling deeper and deeper in a pit of alcohol, drugs, and other vices. The family, what is left of it, is a shell of what it was and rotting from within.

 

Now their father, the possible murderer of their mom, and the man known to all as the “King of Ashes” lies in a coma. From what Naveah says, somebody might have tried to kill him. If so, it would be the latest in a string of events that have happened in recent weeks. Naveah didn’t bother to tell him as Roman was in Atlanta and hasn’t been home to help in years. Now he is and he plans on digging into what happened.

 

What follows is a complicated and often violent crime fiction read as Roman tries to save his family from the situation and their own self-destructive impulses. He has those same impulses in his own way as well as he tries to right wrongs and come to terms with a horrible and tragic family legacy.

 

There is a lot going on via multiple levels as one would expect from this talented author. I’m certainly not going to disrespect the author or the work by revealing any more of the story or the themes in the work. Certainly not a read for the squeamish as violence abounds, this is a work that will linger in the mind long after the read is finished.

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4ljBI0P

 

As expected, the publisher, Flatiron Books, totally ignored my multi month request on NetGalley, so I had to wait for the Dallas Public Library System to get it in. The digital version arrived first, via Libby/Overdrive, ending the need for the print version that is just now arriving in the system.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2025