
Blacktop Wasteland
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Adam Lazarre-White
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By:
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S. A. Cosby
About this listen
2020 LA Times Book Prize - Winner
2021 Anthony Awards - Nominee
2020 Amazon.com Best Books of the Year
2020 Library Journal Best Books of the Year
2020 NPR Best Book of the Year
2020 New York Times Book Review Notable Books of the Year
2020 LA Times Book Prize - Finalist
"Narrator Adam Lazarre-White's voice exudes confidence and depth; his performance is an example of how the best audiobooks deliver pure storytelling." (AudioFile Magazine, Earphones Award winner)
A husband, a father, a son, a business owner...and the best getaway driver east of the Mississippi.
This program includes a bonus conversation with the author.
Beauregard “Bug” Montage is an honest mechanic, a loving husband, and a hardworking dad. Bug knows there’s no future in the man he used to be: Known from the hills of North Carolina to the beaches of Florida as the best wheelman on the East Coast. He thought he'd left all that behind him, but as his carefully built new life begins to crumble, he finds himself drawn inexorably back into a world of blood and bullets.
When a smooth-talking former associate comes calling with a can't-miss jewelry store heist, Bug feels he has no choice but to get back in the driver's seat. And Bug is at his best where the scent of gasoline mixes with the smell of fear.
Haunted by the ghost of who he used to be and the father who disappeared when he needed him most, Bug must find a way to navigate this blacktop wasteland...or die trying.
Like Ocean’s Eleven meets Drive, with a Southern noir twist, S. A. Cosby’s Blacktop Wasteland is a searing, operatic story of a man pushed to his limits by poverty, race, and his own former life of crime.
A Macmillan Audio production from Flatiron Books
“Sensationally good - new, fresh, real, authentic, twisty, with characters and dilemmas that will break your heart. More than recommended.” (Lee Child)
"A fast-paced, fresh take on noir that tears through the underbelly of Virginia." (New York Times)
“Blacktop Wasteland is a guaranteed thriller-of-the-year with muscle and heart and characters who will linger long after the last page is read. S.A. Cosby writes with grit and grace. Do not miss this one.” (Michael Koryta, best-selling author of Those Who Wish Me Dead)
©2020 Shawn A. Cosby (P)2020 Macmillan AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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"Narrator Adam Lazarre-White's voice exudes confidence and depth; his performance is an example of how the best audiobooks deliver pure storytelling." (AudioFile Magazine, Earphones Award winner)
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After moving from a small country town to Seattle, Heather Baxter marries Tom, a widowed doctor with a young son and teenage daughter. A working vacation overseas seems like the perfect way to bring the new family together, but once they’re deep in the Australian outback, the jet-lagged and exhausted kids are so over their new mom. When they discover remote Dutch Island, off-limits to outside visitors, the family talks their way onto the ferry. But as soon as they set foot on the island, which is run by a tightly knit clan of locals, everything feels wrong.
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Love McKinty, but ....
- By Emily S. on 05-22-22
By: Adrian McKinty
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Her One Mistake
- By: Heidi Perks
- Narrated by: Kirsty Dillon, Julie Maisey, Sally Scott
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Charlotte was supposed to be looking after the children, and she swears she was. She only took her eyes off of them for one second. But when her three kids are all safe and sound at the school fair, and Alice, her best friend Harriet’s daughter, is nowhere to be found, Charlotte panics. Frantically searching everywhere, Charlotte knows she must find the courage to tell Harriet that her beloved only child is missing. And admit that she has only herself to blame.
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wow!
- By lisa on 03-04-19
By: Heidi Perks
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They Never Learn
- By: Layne Fargo
- Narrated by: Lameece Issaq, Eileen Stevens
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Scarlett Clark is an exceptional English professor. But she’s even better at getting away with murder. Every year, Dr. Clark searches for the worst man at Gorman University - professor, student, or otherwise - and plots his well-deserved demise. Thanks to her meticulous planning, she’s avoided drawing attention to herself…but as she’s preparing for her biggest kill yet, the school starts probing into the growing body count on campus.
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Well...that was something
- By Mark D on 10-16-20
By: Layne Fargo
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All the Dangerous Things
- A Novel
- By: Stacy Willingham
- Narrated by: Karissa Vacker
- Length: 10 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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One year ago, Isabelle Drake's life changed forever: her toddler son, Mason, was taken out of his crib in the middle of the night while she and her husband were asleep in the next room. With little evidence and few leads for the police to chase, the case quickly went cold. However, Isabelle cannot rest until Mason is returned to her—literally. Except for the occasional catnap or small blackout where she loses track of time, she hasn’t slept in a year. Isabelle's entire existence now revolves around finding him, but she knows she can’t go on this way forever.
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Wow
- By Rachel on 01-10-23
By: Stacy Willingham
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My Darkest Prayer
- A Novel
- By: S. A. Cosby
- Narrated by: Adam Lazarre-White
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Whether it's working at his cousin's funeral home or tossing around the local riffraff at his favorite bar, Nathan Waymaker is a man who knows how to handle the bodies. A former marine and sheriff's deputy, Nathan has built a reputation in his small Southern town as a man who can help when all other avenues have been exhausted. When a beloved local minister is found dead, his parishioners ask Nathan to make sure the death isn’t swept under the rug.
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Amazing First Novel
- By Tod M. Clark on 12-12-22
By: S. A. Cosby
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What Lies in the Woods
- A Novel
- By: Kate Alice Marshall
- Narrated by: Karissa Vacker
- Length: 11 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Naomi Shaw used to believe in magic. Twenty-two years ago, she and her two best friends, Cassidy and Olivia, spent the summer roaming the woods, imagining a world of ceremony and wonder. They called it the Goddess Game. The summer ended suddenly when Naomi was attacked. Miraculously, she survived her seventeen stab wounds and lived to identify the man who had hurt her. The girls’ testimony put away a serial killer, wanted for murdering six women. They were heroes.
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INEQUITABLE RATINGS
- By Ann on 03-05-23
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Things We Do in the Dark
- A Novel
- By: Jennifer Hillier
- Narrated by: Carla Vega
- Length: 12 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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When Paris Peralta is arrested in her own bathroom—covered in blood, holding a straight razor, her celebrity husband dead in the bathtub behind her—she knows she'll be charged with murder. But as bad as this looks, it's not what worries her the most. With the unwanted media attention now surrounding her, it's only a matter of time before someone from her long hidden past recognizes her and destroys the new life she's worked so hard to build, along with any chance of a future.
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Nothing like her other books
- By Carrie on 07-22-22
By: Jennifer Hillier
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Axiom's End
- A Novel
- By: Lindsay Ellis
- Narrated by: Abigail Thorn, Stephanie Willis
- Length: 15 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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It's fall 2007. A well-timed leak has revealed that the US government might have engaged in first contact. Cora Sabino is doing everything she can to avoid the whole mess, since the force driving the controversy is her whistleblower father. Even though Cora hasn't spoken to him in years, his celebrity has caught the attention of the press, the internet, the paparazzi, and the government - and with him in hiding, that attention is on her. She neither knows nor cares whether her father's leaks are a hoax and wants nothing to do with him.
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Short Circuit w Aliens?
- By Eric on 08-05-20
By: Lindsay Ellis
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Behind Her Eyes
- A Novel
- By: Sarah Pinborough
- Narrated by: Anna Bentinck, Josie Dunn, Bea Holland, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Louise is a single mom, a secretary, stuck in a modern-day rut. On a rare night out, she meets a man in a bar, and sparks fly. Though he leaves after they kiss, she's thrilled she finally connected with someone. When Louise arrives at work on Monday, she meets her new boss, David. The man from the bar. The very married man from the bar...who says the kiss was a terrible mistake but who still can't keep his eyes off Louise. And then Louise bumps into Adele, who’s new to town and in need of a friend. But she also just happens to be married to David.
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HATED the ending
- By Katherine Olson on 02-20-17
By: Sarah Pinborough
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The Soulmate
- A Novel
- By: Sally Hepworth
- Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik, Jessica Douglas-Henry
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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There’s a cottage on a cliff. Gabe and Pippa’s dream home in a sleepy coastal town. But their perfect house hides something sinister. The tall cliffs have become a popular spot for people to end their lives. Night after night Gabe comes to their rescue, literally talking them off the ledge. Until he doesn’t. When Pippa discovers Gabe knew the victim, the questions spiral...Did the victim jump? Was she pushed?
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Another hit!
- By Chelsea Ritchie on 04-06-23
By: Sally Hepworth
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I See You
- By: Clare Mackintosh
- Narrated by: Rachel Atkins
- Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Every morning and evening, Zoe Walker takes the same route to the train station, waits at a certain place on the platform, finds her favorite spot in the car, never suspecting that someone is watching her. It all starts with a classified ad. During her commute home one night, while glancing through her local paper, Zoe sees her own face staring back at her - a grainy photo along with a phone number and a listing for a website called FindTheOne.com.
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Commuters Beware!
- By Carole T. on 02-23-17
By: Clare Mackintosh
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Button Man
- By: Andrew Gross
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Andrew Gross delivers a stirring story of a Jewish family brought together in the dawn of the women's garment business and torn apart by the birth of organized crime in New York City in the 1930s. Morris, Sol, and Harry Rabishevsky grew up poor and rough in a tiny flat on the Lower East Side, until the death of their father thrust them into having to fend for themselves. Morris, the youngest, dropped out of school at 12 and apprenticed himself to a garment cutter in a clothing factory; Sol headed to accounting school; but Harry, scarred by a family tragedy, fell in with a gang of thugs as a teenager.
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Excellent historical suspense HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
- By shelley on 09-19-18
By: Andrew Gross
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Trust No One
- With Bonus Audio Short Story, "The Awakening," a Prelude
- By: Gregg Hurwitz
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Over the past two decades, Nick Horrigan has built a quiet, safe life for himself, living as much under the radar as possible. But all of that shatters when, in the middle of the night, a SWAT team bursts into his apartment, grabs him and drags him to a waiting helicopter. A terrorist - someone Nick has never heard of - has seized control of a nuclear reactor, threatening to blow it up. And the only person he’ll talk to is Nick, promising to tell Nick the truth behind the events that shattered his life twenty years ago.
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2020 Release BS
- By Amazon Customer on 10-12-20
By: Gregg Hurwitz
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The Last Thing to Burn
- A Novel
- By: Will Dean
- Narrated by: Sarah Lam
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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He is her husband. She is his captive. Her husband calls her Jane. That is not her name. She lives in a small farm cottage, surrounded by vast, open fields. Everywhere she looks, there is space. But she is trapped. No one knows she is there. Visitors rarely come to the farm; if they do, she is never seen.
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Amazing, terrifying read
- By Kat A. on 04-21-21
By: Will Dean
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The Villa
- A Novel
- By: Rachel Hawkins
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan, Kimberly M. Wetherell, Shiromi Arserio
- Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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As kids, Emily and Chess were inseparable. But by their 30s, their bond has been strained by the demands of their adult lives. So when Chess suggests a girls trip to Italy, Emily jumps at the chance to reconnect with her best friend.
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like Gillian Flynn's version of Eat pray love
- By Patricia on 01-04-23
By: Rachel Hawkins
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Nothing More Dangerous
- By: Allen Eskens
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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In a small Southern town where loyalty to family and to "your people" carries the weight of a sacred oath, defying those unspoken rules can be a deadly proposition. After 15 years of growing up in the Ozark hills with his widowed mother, high-school freshman Boady Sanden is beyond ready to move on. He dreams of glass towers and cityscapes, driven by his desire to be anywhere other than Jessup, Missouri. The new kid at St. Ignatius High School, if he isn't being pushed around, he is being completely ignored.
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Eskens writes another solid coming of age...
- By shelley on 11-21-19
By: Allen Eskens
What listeners say about Blacktop Wasteland
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- Smacd77
- 10-27-20
I've found a new author to check for...
Great story, highly entertaining, I listened to the whole book in two days, couldn't turn it off. The characters feel authentic and the author did a good job of developing them, explaining their background story, etc. The narrator was on point, he brought the story to life. I will definitely be looking for more books from this author and would like a sequel to this one.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Mark
- 01-18-21
This Is Why Audible Is Great!
Many of us who have been long time Audible members have come to learn there are many mediocre books, many good books, but few truly great books. Blacktop Wasteland is one of the few.
Great story, great writing, and pitch perfect narration which not only entertains you but forces you to think, reflect, and be honest with self.
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2 people found this helpful
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- lisa mcdougall
- 07-20-21
Fasten your seatbelt…or hell don’t
Gritty crime- I am usually on board with, but the action genre when combined can leave me in the dust….but not here! Everything about this Audible was superb. The narrator, let me listen to him reciting a list of Covid vaccine sites and I would be enthralled. That man can talk. Velvet.
The characters? OK so how did SA Cosby happen to know a lot of the same people I know? You might not hang with them anymore but you know them.
The plot? Totally engrossing.
So, I love this book. So much, that after I listened to the audio version I bought a hard copy and a paper back, for lending. Just let me say this about the character and plot development. Imagine you’re in a really, really good restaurant and they bring you one dish after another and each dish as you take a bite you taste more and more of what has gone into it. Layers and layers of flavor building for an experience not to be forgotten. Well, that’s what I thought about this book. A delicious tasting menu with no froufrou just a lotta yum.
So, no surprise he is on the front page of the New York Times book review this week for his new book.
All I can say is I saw that coming. What a really great read. Keep on telling those stories Mr. Cosby.
Readers, treat yourself with this.
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1 person found this helpful
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- jmede
- 07-25-21
One of the best ever!
Phenomenal story, flawless narration and characters you will love. This story sucked me in and never let me go. Beauregard, Bugs, or whatever, was such a real character in a real world and I I was rooting for him all of the way. The writing was some of the best I’ve ever read and I read/listen to at least 150 books a year.
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- Caren CJ
- 01-31-21
Step into another world
S A Cosby shares the world of a rural black man trying to do good by his family. The book was a little slow to start, but then I couldn’t stop. One thing after the next goes wrong. Highly recommend this audio book.
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- David
- 02-02-21
Solid Crime Novel with believable characters
It's hard not to root for Bug, despite the things he's done, and is forced to do. Blacktop Wasteland gives a glimpse into a world where the things one would rather not even think about are essentials. A father, a husband, a hell of a driver and mechanic, Bug finds himself face-planting into the reality of "The American Dream," debts, business problems a mother on welfare... and a lot on his shoulders. The question you start with and follow through to the end is... can you walk a tightrope between normalcy and shadow, or do you have to (eventually) fall on one side or the other... and if so, how far do you fall. Great book.
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- Barbara Doyle
- 11-10-20
Fast paced thriller
From the beginning I loved Beauregard. Don’t think I spelled it right. His heart was that of a good man. Over and over I can see where a person’s early childhood experiences mold their life. His father had his thumb on his whole life. I also enjoyed the side characters, not that they were good people, but I could envision them. The narration was excellent! Overall just an excellent book.
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- Megan Dorsey
- 03-05-21
Great Story; Amazing Performance
This is the best book I’ve read in a long time. So much fun. Well developed characters, well paced action, and a good story line. (It also has some varied, accurate, and apt college-bound vocabulary — in addition to some colorful language.)
And the Audible performance is possibly the best I’ve ever experienced. The only competitor is Kenneth Branagh’s “Heart of Darkness” which is pretty amazing!
So if you are looking for a good read— not too serious, but well written— get the Audible version.
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- E. Emory Johnson
- 11-11-21
Great story telling
This is a great story, written in a way that goes beyond a simple thriller …you will be taken into this world of Blacktop Asphalt , by the characters , how their stories are intertwine , and how choices can have a ripple
affect across multiple characters. Excellent book!
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- AD Cramer
- 09-13-21
Outstanding crime thriller
This was a red hot thriller that was as deep in character as it was in action and intrigue. I've never spent a minute in rural Virginia but I immediately felt grounded in this world. The heist elements were both clever and plausible. Bug is a bad man but not a super man. The deeper themes of loss, regrets and the relationships between fathers and sons gave the novel real resonance beyond the crime thriller elements. Couldn't put this one down.
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