“Grit Black Blood comes out of the gate hard and fast and with every intention of taking no prisoners. Told in a unique and kinetic prose, Ashley Erwin writes like how Barry Hannah said William Faulkner wrote—all horns blaring at once. Readers of death-defying sly noir written by the likes of writers like Frank Bill and Bruce Holbert will be eager to get whiskey drunk on this novel of violence and cunning.”
—Charles Dodd White, author of A Year Without Months and A Fire Runs
“The long awaited epic southern fried fatalistic myth, Grit, Black, Blood, is a Greek tragedy soaked in moonshine and Crisco. Ashley Erwin is one of crime fiction’s most authentic voices.”
—S.A. Cosby, bestselling author of Razorblade Tears
“Ashley Erwin is the Queen of grit lit, busting a bottle upside your head and pressing a blade to your jugular with her poetic vernacular that cuts deep into the human condition, peeling back the layers of tough-as-boot-leather-lives surviving within the chewed up rural landscape of Grit Black Blood, where devilish deeds are as common as the air we breathe and vengeance is another word for family, so twist off the cap of some smooth Kentucky bourbon, pour a few fingers, take a deep inhale and pony up for one helluva story.”
—Frank Bill, author of Donnybrook and The Savage
“Ashley Erwin is doing for Kentucky what John D. MacDonald did for Florida and Flannery O’Connor did for Georgia. She speaks the vernacular of the land—of Dairy Marts, cornfields, knife fights, and coal mines. The characters in Grit Black Blood are as off-the-wall as they come, yet as authentic and raw as any I’ve read in a novel. If you’re a fan of Southern crime fiction, you need to buy this book”
—C.W. Blackwell, author of Hard Mountain Clay
“Ashley Erwin writes with the rage and fury of a Tarantino film on the pages of a Tom Franklin novel. Grit Black Blood kicks you in the gut, walks a mud hole through you, and keeps you turning pages. Don’t miss out on this book!”
—Mark Westmoreland, author of A Violent Gospel