Hard Cash Valley

A Novel

By: Brian Panowich

Narrated by: Brian Troxell

Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's Summary

Return to McFalls County and Bull Mountain in Hard Cash Valley, where Brian Panowich weaves another masterful tale of Southern Noir.

Dane Kirby is a broken man and no stranger to tragedy. As a life-long resident and ex-arson investigator for McFalls County, Dane has lived his life in one of the most chaotic and crime-ridden regions of the south. When he gets called in to consult on a brutal murder in a Jacksonville, Florida, motel room, he and his FBI counterpart, Special Agent Roselita Velasquez, begin an investigation that leads them back to the criminal circles of his own backyard.

Arnie Blackwell’s murder in Jacksonville is only the beginning - and Dane and Roselita seem to be one step behind. For someone is hacking a bloody trail throughout the southeast looking for Arnie’s younger brother, a boy with Asperger’s Syndrome who possesses an unusual skill with numbers that could make a lot of money and that has already gotten a lot of people killed - and has even more of the deadliest people alive willing to do anything it takes to exploit him.

As Dane joins in the hunt to find the boy, it swiftly becomes a race against the clock that has Dane entangled in a web of secrets involving everyone from the Filipino mafia to distrusting federal agents to some of hardest southern outlaws he’s ever known. 

A Macmillan Audio production from Minotaur Books

"The plotting is skilled, as is the sleuthing, and the landscape is stunning. But it’s the hard-jawed characters, with their tough talk and scarred souls, who really get under your skin." (New York Times Book Review)

©2020 Brian Panowich (P)2020 Macmillan Audio

Another great story

Brian Panowich never disappoints. Always look forward to the next one. Narration is wonderful. A good team.

I LOVE THIS SERIES!!!!

I am so in love with this series!! I may just listen to them all over again soon!
I must admit, I missed Clayton Burroughs but I really love Dane Kirby. I'm interested to see where else this series goes. There will be more, won't there !!??
God I hated Roselita Velasquez, I was hoping the entire time that someone would slap the crap out of her! Please, if there is another book, don't let her be in it!!

Narration:
Is there anyone else who could be more perfect for these books than Brian Troxell? The answer to that is a big fat NO! He IS this series!
He is EXCELLENT!!!

Truly Great, Again

My title is appros as Brian Panowich has written another great book. Love, warmth, lost, regret, true friendship, spirit and heart. These sentiments are on full display in this story. I strongly recommend this book and know all readers will be deeply touched as I was.

Very enjoyable

First time I have listened to a book by this author! I really enjoyed it. Maybe started out a bit slow but it really takes off and held my interest! Loved the reader too.

Drawn out, predictable, and very poorly narrated

Disclaimer - I was not able to finish the book. It was that bad. I LOVED Panowich’s other novels of this genre. Two of the best books I’ve ever read. Bull Mountain and Like Lions. Bull Mountain might be the best book I’ve ever read. Maybe this style of book isn’t as good on audio for me. I gave it 2 stars simply because I like Panowich so much. Aside from that, it was downright atrocious. To be fair, I only gave it 5 or 6 chapters, but it was so bad I couldn’t finish it. I read reviews on the hard book previously and they were mostly not good. The reviews for the audio were better so I decided to give it a chance.

The characters were predictable. Each scene was drawn out with no suspense or substance. The narrator has a voice like Kaycee Kasum. He would be an excellent radio host or radio commercial voice. But man was he boring for this. No curiosity. No personality. His voice change ups were very cheesy - especially the southern accent and female voices. Maybe get someone who has spent at least 1 hour in the south to do the next one. Lol. I’ve heard some excellent narrators on here. This one was far and away the worst.

Sorry to drop such a negative review, but it was very poor. Try something else unless you just feel obligated to finish Panowich’s series. That’s why I gave it a shot.

You get what you pay for...

I considered myself a little bit ripped off because while this book was indeed free, it still represents several hours of my life for which I can never be reimbursed.
I would like to believe that this novel would have been tolerable with a half way decent narrator. But I'll never know as I won't risk a repeat.

Country folk as criminals plus some bad Filipinos

Lots of gore for no good reason and some not very smart loser characters. Skip this one.

Cliches, annoying characters, lazy writing...

and a key character lifted right from the movies (Hint: 246 toothpicks)

This dull, Southern thriller jumps around like a grasshopper in the savannah grass. I was never sure how the Special Agents made their deductions from tiny tidbits of nothing clues. From one tidbit to the next, the broken-soul agents (or course they're broken - one of whom is so annoying that I decided to write this poor review), flit around the South calling forth all the bad people to come out from under their rocks. They do, of course...because the story would put you to sleep if bad, obnoxious, wounded perps didn't show up occasionally to spew venom and confuse the story.

This book is being returned for a credit...I suggest you skip it (even if you listened to the first two in the series).

All angst, no action

I'm all for character development, but so much ink is spent on the characters' demons that the story progresses too slowly.

Very Good

This is an excellent story with excellent narration. It is nicely paced, thought provoking and interesting. Definitely, go for the ride.