What to Read
Crime & Mystery
Scott Von Doviak’s novel “Lowdown Road” evokes “The Dukes of Hazzard” — in a good way.
Credit…Pablo Amargo
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Scott Von Doviak has done the unthinkable: made me take the television show “The Dukes of Hazzard” more seriously. His latest novel, LOWDOWN ROAD (Hard Case Crime, 287 pp., paperback, $15.95) — with its hapless good ol’ boy antiheroes clad in aviator sunglasses, crotch-hugging Levis and Lynyrd Skynyrd T-shirts — clearly takes inspiration from the series.
It’s summer 1974 in Texas, and Chuck Melville, six months out of a stint at the state prison in Huntsville, is bored and restless. He and his cousin Dean have come up with a not-very-smart plan to steal 250 pounds of marijuana and drive it in a spray-painted Gonzo Taco truck to Idaho, where Evel Knievel (whom Dean worships) is set to jump over Snake River Canyon on his motorcycle. That didn’t work out so well for Knievel, and it’s looking like the Melvilles’ scheme will result in harebrained catastrophe, too.
“The Dukes of Hazzard” had a social contract with its viewers: No matter what kind of trouble they got in, the boys would always prevail and live to see another episode. There’s no such guarantee with a book like this, which makes it even more fun to read.
THE BITTER PAST (Minotaur, 305 pp., $28), the impressive first effort from Bruce Borgos, introduces Porter Beck, a longtime military intelligence officer who’s returned home to the Nevada high desert, where he’s now a sheriff — the same job his father held until being diagnosed with dementia.
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250 Pounds of Pot, a Taco Truck and a Cross-Country Road Trip – The New York Times
