About the Book
James Hart, with a tough-as-nails exterior and an aching emptiness inside, does not want to go home. Yet when James receives a postcard from his mother, Birdie Mae, informing him of his father's death, he bites the bullet and returns to the rural and stagnant town of Crystal Springs, Florida, a place where dreams are born to die. James is too late for Orville's funeral, but just in time to become ensnared in the deadly repercussions of his younger brother Rabbit's life of petty crime. When Rabbit is double crossed by his cousin in a robbery-turned-murder, James and a local bartender, the unsettling and alluring Marlena Bell, must come up with a plan to save Rabbit's skin. A whirlwind road trip across the desolate Florida panhandle ensues as James tries to stay one step ahead of the vengeful Alligator Mafia and keep his brother alive. With bullets in the air and the ghosts of heartache, betrayal and unspeakable rage haunting him at every turn, James must decide just how much he is willing to risk to protect his family and find a way home.
About the Author :
Steph Post is the author of two acclaimed novels: A Tree Born Crooked, a semi-finalist for the Big Moose Prize, and Lightwood, the first Judah Cannon novel. Post is a recipient of the Patricia Cornwell Scholarship for creative writing from Davidson College and the Vereen Bell writing award for fiction. She holds a Master's degree in Graduate Liberal Studies from the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Her short fiction has appeared in Haunted Waters: From the Depths, The Round-Up, The Gambler Mag, Foliate Oak, Kentucky Review, Vending Machine Press, Nonbinary Review and the anthology Stephen King's Contemporary Classics. Her short story "The Pallid Mask" has recently been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She is a regular contributor to Small Press Book Review and Alternating Current Press and has published numerous book reviews and author interviews. She is currently the writing coach at Howard W. Blake High School in Tampa, FL. Visit author's website at stephpostfiction.com or @StephPostAuthor.
Review :
PRAISE FOR THE NOVELS OF STEPH POST "WALK IN THE FIRE slings the Cannon family back on the page like a Molotov cocktail through a window. Few writers could coax a cast of characters this vast onto a single stage and orchestrate their story with such mastery. Post own the genre of North Florida noir." ―David Joy, author of Where the Light Tends to Go and The Weight Of This World "Post combines classical genre tropes with a touch of Harry Crews-style Southern gothic in this terrific crime novel." ―Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) "Steph Post's WALK IN THE FIRE is a wonderful accomplishment, teeming with a refreshingly unexpected cast of characters, and an original story in an unlikely setting. It's a wild ride through the dark side of the sunshine state." ―David Swinson, author of The Second Girl and Crime Song "Fascinating...a solid actioner with some tasty trimmings." ―Booklist "With wicked dexterity Steph Post gets at the deepness in living and loving, as well as the good and bad within us all. But WALK IN THE FIRE also takes us to dark places where evil reigns and the characters struggle with their worst and best intentions. Unputdownable crime fiction with a Southern Twist, WALK IN THE FIRE will continually surprise you with the speed of its plot and the mythic proportions of the story it unfolds." ―Natalie S. Harnett, author of The Hollow Ground "We tend to think of Florida as happy, warm, and sunny, but in Steph Post's wonderfully written new novel, A Walk in the Fire, she shows us a slew of cold-blooded folks and dark places. She writes characters so well I was very happy, after tearing through the book, to remember they only existed on the page. Excellent." ―Erik Storey, author of Nothing Short of Dying "Steph Post writes with an intensity all her own. Greed, power, and desperation collide to make us ask, what choices do we make when it seems like none are left? Walk in the Fire captures backwoods Florida in all its grit and glory. This is a superbly original thriller―as sleek, wild, and dangerous as any rattlesnake." ―Erica Wright, author of The Red Chameleon "Choose your superlative: compelling, exciting, thrilling. They all apply. In Walk in the Fire, Steph Post delivers more of her trademark style with a scorching plot burning around a beating heart and compelling characters you won't soon forget. The perfect blend of backwoods crime and family drama, southern fried and served hot." ―Eric Beetner, author of Rumrunners and Leadfoot Praise for LIGHTWOOD by Steph Post "Steph Post's prose is lyrical and evocative. Her depiction of hardscrabble life in rural Florida is so effective, you'll wanna lock the doors and crank up the AC. But where LIGHTWOOD truly excels is in illuminating the ties that bind―and stretching them well beyond their breaking point." ―Chris Holm, award-winning author of The Killing Kind "Brilliant...Lightwood solidifies Steph Post as the official voice of working class literature in Florida, akin to what Daniel Woodrell has done for Missouri, or Ron Rash for the Carolinas." ―Brian Panowich, bestselling author of Bull Mountain "Post paints a large, vivid cast...Post's Florida is rather farther north than the world of Carl Hiaasen's fiction, but they share the dark comedy, intricate plotting and strong sense of paltry sin and mordant evil. Readers who like Hiaasen should find "Lightwood" well to their taste." ―Wilmington Star-News "Grabs the attention and offers up some memorable lines. (Post) proves that even a former prison inmate can rise up to be a strange, yet believable hero." ―Suspense Magazine "With spot-on characterizations and dialogue, Post explores the strength of family, religion, and vengeance in an absorbing literary mystery." ―Booklist "(A) gritty, propulsive crime novel...Lightwood keeps up a headlong pace as the Cannons, the Scorpions, Sister Tulah and other forces clash brutally all around Judah and Ramey. You might not want to visit Silas in real life, but it makes a fine setting for this twisted and compelling tale." ―Tampa Bay Times
