Book Review: Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby

Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby
Publisher: ‎ Flatiron Books
Publication Date: July 6, 2021
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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

Ike Randolph has been out of jail for fifteen years, with not so much as a speeding ticket in all that time. But a Black man with cops at the door knows to be afraid.

The last thing he expects to hear is that his son Isiah has been murdered, along with Isiah’s white husband, Derek. Ike had never fully accepted his son but is devastated by his loss.

Derek’s father Buddy Lee was almost as ashamed of Derek for being gay as Derek was ashamed of his father’s criminal record. Buddy Lee still has contacts in the underworld, though, and he wants to know who killed his boy.

Ike and Buddy Lee, two ex-cons with little else in common other than a criminal past and a love for their dead sons, band together in their desperate desire for revenge. In their quest to do better for their sons in death than they did in life, hardened men Ike and Buddy Lee will confront their own prejudices about their sons and each other, as they rain down vengeance upon those who hurt their boys.

When partners Derek and Ike are murdered, their fathers take matters into their own hands to investigate what happened. Neither father was accepting of their sons being gay and must deal with the fact that now it’s too late.

The crime element of this book was well-done with nice twists. I thought some of the dialogue bordered on preachy, but perhaps that’s what some people who will read this book need. While I didn’t think it quite lived up to the hype when it first came out, I did enjoy reading it. Recommended.