BOOK NOOK: Fire season in California comes sooner these days

It might surprise you-when I select novels I prefer to know as little about them as possible prior to reading them. I hate spoilers. I waited to read Cosby’s forward to this story until after I finished the book. In his forward Cosby wrote: “I realized I could write a thousand books and never come close to this level of writing.”

“The Last King of California” is the story of Luke Crosswhite, who as the story begins is a young man who has just flunked out of a Colorado college-he’s heading back to San Bernardino, in the Inland Empire region of southern California. The last time he was there he was seven years old.

Luke has a complicated past. His dad, Big Bobby Crosswhite, heads a criminal enterprise known as the Combine. They are small-time thieves and drug dealers-he transmits orders via smuggled cell phones from within the prison where he’s serving time for murder.

This crime family still assembles at Big Bobby’s place in the desert. Luke’s uncle directs their criminal endeavors in the absence of Big Bobby. When Luke arrives he receives a lukewarm reception. His uncle isn’t pleased to see the son who might want to lay claim to the land where they are living. But mostly they reject Luke because they regard him as a weakling.

It is basic. If you are weak, they cull you out of the herd. Luke can stay in a trailer out back. For now. As Luke turns up he’s spotted by his friend Callie. She and her boyfriend, Pretty Baby, belong to the Combine. She remembers being friends with Luke when they were kids.

Callie provides our second point of view. She’s deeply in love with Pretty Baby. He’s got a weakness though, he’s out of it. Drugs. As Luke observes the nefarious activity going on he starts getting drawn in. He wants to prove himself and become part of the Combine. He gets his opportunity as these small-time grifters begin warring with a gang of neo-Nazi skinheads cooking meth out in the desert: “a man, naked except for a plastic apron and gas mask on top of his head, smoking a cigarette, sits on the hood of an ancient Volkswagen.”

S.A. Cosby provides excellent referrals. This book cooks hotter than a desert meth lab.

Vick Mickunas of Yellow Springs interviews authors every Saturday at 7 a.m. and on Sundays at 10:30 a.m. on WYSO-FM (91.3). For more information, visit wyso.org/programs/book-nook. Contact him at vick@vickmickunas.com.