A review by calebstephensauthor
Brand New Dark by Beau Johnson

4.0

I've been meaning to read some Beau Johnson FOREVER now and let me tell you this before I say anything else: the man can straight-up write. Holy hell. You never know what you're going to get when you take a chance on a new author, and I was mighty pleased with Mr. Johnson's taut-as-rope prose. He writes gritty. He writes dark. And he writes in such a way that it was easy for me to get lost in his characters--almost as though I was actually the one having their thoughts instead of reading them. (sidenote -- some of the thoughts were terrifying.)

Okay, onto the book. It's great. But readers should be ready for some pretty extreme torture/violence. There isn't much time wasted easing you into graphic scenes. Johnson simply dumps you in to see if you can swim. And swim I did. I ate this book up, one story at a time. My only slight issue is that I think I would have connected more with the characters if I'd read some of the earlier Bishop Rider books. I'll admit, I felt a little lost at points without a further rounding out of the Bishop backstory. But hey, it's an excuse to pick up his other books, which I will now gladly do.

I highly suggest sampling some of Johnson's work. And double that if you like raw/gritty crime fiction. You won't be disappointed.