Scott Blackburn

Author Scott Blackburn says inspiration for It Dies With You came in the form of a statement from one o his friends: "It dies with him." They were discussing family legacies, and an idea took hold of him about the tale of a young man who is estranged from his father, but inherits his salvage yard. He says the characters and story began to keep him up at night, and his gut told him he had "a story that needs to be told."

As It Dies with You opens, Hudson Miller is nearing this thirtieth birthday and down on his luck. His boxing license has been suspended following an after-match brawl that he did not instigate, but in which he participated. It was caught on video, went viral on YouTube, and also cost him the prize money from that match, as well as his position coaching kids at a local rec center. Although he has boxed professionally for a few years, Blackburn describes Hudson as "an everyday man" whose potential for success in the ring was always limited. For Hudson, having to "hand over my coaching whistle" hurt the most, he explains in the first-person narrative through which Blackburn tells his story. "He doesn't have much footing in the world," according to Blackburn, and the one thing that meant a great deal to him has been taken from him. Now he's working as a bouncer at the Red Door Taproom and sleeping on his friend's couch as tries to figure out how to get his license reinstated.

Hudson gets a telephone call from his father, from whom he is largely estranged. He opts not to answer the first time or when his father calls back. And his father does not leave a message. The next morning, Hudson receives another call from the police in his hometown of Flint Creek, North Carolina, informing him that his father, Leland, was fatally shot at his salvage yard, Miller’s Pull-a-Part. Hudson wonders what it was his father wanted to say to him, and whether answering his call might have made a difference. Before he can return to Flint Creek for the funeral, Leland's employee, Charlie, discovers the carpet pulled away from the floor in the salvage yard's storage room, revealing a metal door. Below it are eight guns with the serial numbers ground off. More damning is the fact that each gun is tagged in his father's handwriting. The police believe there were more guns stored there before the murder, and his father was involved in an illegal gun-running operation.

His father's killing and the mystery surrounding it force Hudson to confront his memories of the man. He is stunned by the prospect that Leland was running a criminal enterprise, although he does remember him stuffing rolls of money into coffee tins and liquor bottles that he hid in and around the family home. He also stockpiled batteries, flashlights, and nonperishables, and had an "everybody-is-out-to-get-us attitude." It also conjures up memories of the days before his parents divorced and the twenty years since his father "dismantled our family." Hudson finds it hard to grieve a man who virtually abandoned him. "I wasn't glad he was gone. I just wished he'd been somebody different when he was alive." He also has to deal with his chain-smoking stepmother, Tammy. Hudson calls Tammy "as helpless a person as I'd ever met. . . . Her idea of a job, for years, was sitting her ass in the living room, smoking and drinking Diet Mountain Dew while she stuffed envelopes full of entry forms to every sweepstakes, prize drawing, and contest imaginable." Hudson describes Leland and Tammy as "perfect for each other in the worst ways possible. Cancerously codependent."

Part of Hudson's resentment of his father stems from watching his mother struggle to raise him after his parents' split. So he is curious to learn the value of his father's estate, and astonished to learn that Leland left him not only Miller's Pull-a-Part, but also three rental properties. Hudson has no idea how to run a salvage yard or be a landlord, but he is determined to learn. Charlie Shoaf is a seventy-one-year-old Vietnam veteran who worked under the table for Leland, and is willing to stay on and help Hudson. He lays out his terms: he has to be paid weekly in cash, left alone to do his job without being hounded by a boss, and allowed to drink beer on Saturdays. Keystone beer, to be exact. Charlie is sly, savvy, and knows that Hudson will not be able to run the salvage yard without him. Since one of the rental properties is vacant, Hudson has a place to live while he figures out if he can keep the salvage yard operating or should sell it, and the investigation into his father's death proceeds.

The story is set in fictional Flint Creek, North Carolina, based on small, mid-North Carolina towns in the area where Blackburn grew up and still resides. He says he wanted to write "something that was relatable to my own experience so that it would come off the pages as real." It does. Flint Creek is a prominent, omnipresent character in the book and Blackburn transports readers there. Hudson, Charlie, and the rest of his eclectic cast of characters are thoroughly credible, in part, because of Blackburn's keen talent for crafting believable and, at times, humorous dialogue. He credits his ability to make his characters come to life convincingly with the fact that he incorporated words and phrases from real conversations.

Hudson has just begun to settle back into Flint Creek when the investigation into his father's murder takes more mysterious and deadly turns, and brings teenaged Lucy Reyes into his life. She is feisty, whip-smart, and on a mission to get justice for her family. She has been using social media to enlist help from the community. Through her Instagram account, she shines a light on what she and her family believe is callous indifference on the part of the Flint Creek police department -- the same department that isn't making much progress on discovering who killed Leland, or the motivation for that crime and the incidents that have occurred since his death. Hudson assures a cynical Lucy that he wants the same thing she does -- the truth and for justice to be served. "Justice," she responds. "A poor Mexican family getting justice in this town? That's a good one."

Lucy's reaction is one of the ways Blackburn demonstrates that Hudson, Charlie, and Lucy are all, in their own ways, "outsiders" in Flint Creek. To the entrenched residents of the little town, they are "others." Hudson grew up there, but has been away for eleven years and only returned because of his father's death. Charlie is not from Flint Creek. Lucy's family is actually from Texas, a fact she has had to explain "a thousand times before" to townspeople. None of the three "line up with the power center of the town," and they all feel unwelcome due to the prejudices and ignorance of those who do. Blackburn's story is an indictment of small town small-mindedness, as well as unharnessed power and corruption, illustrated through characters including Frank Coble, the police chief, and the Boars Club, of which his father, along with "some of the most upstanding men in town," was a long-time member. The clubhouse is where deals are brokered, decisions made, and the lives of the citizens who aren't part of the club are impacted.

Lucy, Hudson, and Charlie team up when it becomes clear that the local police are disinclined to put much effort into solving the crimes that have rocked their families. All three are fully formed, deeply sympathetic characters that readers will cheer on as they undertake their own dangerous investigation. Lucy understands the power of social media, and intends to harness it to achieve her goal. She will not be deterred until her family gets vindication. Charlie may be irascible, but his gruff exterior belies his honor and deep loyalty. Hudson needs answers so that he can at last put the past behind him and carve out a future for himself whether it be in Flint Creek or elsewhere. But if he is going to make a home for himself in Flint Creek, it has to be on his terms. And, along with Lucy and Charlie, he is intent on exposing the ugly side of the little town where people who don't look, talk, act, and think the way the majority do, they are treated like "less of a person." He declares to those who have perpetuated the status quo that he wants no part of that mentality. Hence, the book's title: "It dies with you."

An exploration of corrosive power and greed undergirding the workings of a small town, particularly a small Southern town, is hardly unique or innovative. But Blackburn manages to make it fresh, absorbing, and deeply moving because of his command of his subject matter, as well as the characters he brings to life. It Dies with You is a mesmerizing debut -- entertaining, and richly atmospheric, with plenty of surprising plot developments, and a thought-provoking examination of families and their legacies relayed through Hudson's experiences and emotional journey. Blackburn also explores whether second chances can work out, and if it is possible to start again in the place where your life began. Will Hudson ever learn why his father was calling him? Or will he have to accept that his father took the purpose of the calls with him to his grave? By the book's satisfying conclusion, readers will be clamoring for more from the very talented Blackburn who, happily, reports that his second novel is in the works.

Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.… (más)

Debut novel and I can see that this author will do great things. This was a little slow and a bit of a dark/noir (not my favorite) but the story was compelling.

Hudson is a banned professional boxer turned bartender who receives a surprise inheritance from his estranged father after he is murdered. Which isn't necessarily a good thing. First of all he has to move back to the rural small town he had managed to escape and figure out how to run his father's salvage yard. Charlie, his father's only employee, sticks around for which I am glad. He by far was my favorite character. Got to love crotchety old men with no filter. And then enter sassy teenage Lucy who is looking for her brother's murderer. Together these three manage to kick over more than one hornet's nest.

I will be keeping an eye out for what Blackburn does next. I want to thank NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for providing me an advance copy of It Dies with You in exchange for my honest review.… (más)