The Carrion Birds from Urban Waite, author of the highly acclaimed The Terror of Living, is a remarkable work of literary noir.
Hired gun Ray Lamar is ready to put his past behind him. He wants to see his twelve-year-old son and start a new life—away from the violence of the last ten years. One last heist will take him there. All he has to do is steal a rival’s stash. Simple, easy, clean.
But when things start to go very wrong, Ray realizes the path to redemption isn’t always easy.
A soulful tale of violence, vengeance, and contrition, The Carrion Birds is an elegant depiction of one man’s last chance to make things right.
Ray Lamar has made some mistakes. He's good at hurting people—the dead wife he failed, the young son he abandoned, the victims who stand in his boss's way. But Ray's tired of being that man. He wants to go home to Coronado, New Mexico, to see his boy and make a new life far from the violence of the past. One last job will take him there. All he has to do is steal a rival's stash. Simple and easy.
Ray knows there's no such thing as easy, and that simple plan has quickly become a catastrophe. Now the runners who have always moved quietly through this desert border town want vengeance. To stop a bloodbath and maybe save his own soul, Ray must figure out how to make it right. But for a man like Ray Lamar, there is only one way. . . .
"Opens with gentle beauty, calm before a bloody storm, before building intensity with swift, jarring, and confident storytelling power. . . . Readers-including this one-will certainly be following Urban Waite for years to come."
