nINSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER n nPropulsive and powerful. . . A gripping roller coaster ride of escalating danger. --New York Times Book Review nPick up the novel everyone will be talking about. --The Atlantic nDark, riveting, and accomplished. --Washington Post n nAward-winning, New York Times bestselling author S. A. Cosby returns with King of Ashes, a Godfather-inspired Southern crime epic and dazzling family drama. n nWhen eldest son Roman Carruthers is summoned home after his fathers car accident, he finds his younger brother, Dante, in debt to dangerous criminals and his sister, Neveah, exhausted from holding the family--and the family business--together. Neveah and their father, who run the Carruthers Crematorium in the run-down central Virginia town of Jefferson Run, see death up close every day. But mortality draws even closer when it becomes clear that the crash that landed their father in a coma was no accident and Dantes recklessness has placed them all in real danger. n nRoman, a financial whiz with a head for numbers and a talent for making his clients rich, has some money to help buy his brother out of trouble. But in his work with wannabe tough guys, hes forgotten that there are real gangsters out there. As his bargaining chips go up in smoke, Roman realizes that he has only one thing left to offer to save his brother: himself, and his own particular set of skills. n nRoman begins his work for the criminals while Neveah tries to uncover the long-ago mystery of what happened to their mother, who disappeared when they were teenagers. But Roman is far less of a pushover than the gangsters realize. He is willing to do anything to save his family. Anything. n nBecause everything burns. n n[A] sizzling summer read that concludes with a few unexpected twists. n--Atlanta Journal Constitutionn