Razorblade Tears

A Black father. A white father. Two murdered sons. A quest for vengeance.

Sunday Times Thriller of the Month | Financial Times Crime Books of the Year | Barack Obama's Summer Reading List 2022

Ike Randolph left jail fifteen years ago, with not so much as a speeding ticket since. But a Black man with cops at the door knows to be afraid. Ike is devastated to learn his son Isiah has been murdered, along with Isiah's white husband, Derek. Though he never fully accepted his son, Ike is broken by his death. Derek's father Buddy Lee was as ashamed of Derek being gay as Derek was of his father's criminal past. But Buddy Lee - with seedy contacts deep in the underworld - needs to know who killed his only child.

Desperate to do better by them in death than they did in life, two hardened ex-cons must confront their own prejudices about their sons - and each other - as they rain down vengeance upon those who hurt their boys. A provocative revenge thriller and an achingly tender story of redemption, this novel is a ferocious portrait of grief; for those loved and lost, and for mistakes than can never truly be undone. 

'Superb...Cuts right to the heart of the most important questions of our times.' – Michael Connelly 

'The very definition of a white-knuckle ride' – Ian Rankin 

'Cosby's prose barrels along like a pick-up still angry it's not a Ferrari, and his phrase-making is up there with the great artists of noir' – The Times, Best Thrillers of the Month