It Dies with You

Hudson Miller, just shy of thirty, is a professional boxer on the downslope of a once-promising boxing career now finds himself supplementing his income as bartender and bar bouncer after a misconstrued violent video of him goes viral practically ending his boxing career.

Shortly after ignoring two cellular telephone calls from his estranged father Leland, he is later contacted by a detective from his hometown telling him his father has been murdered at his salvage yard in an apparent robbery gone-wrong.

Hudson hasn’t been to Flint Creek, North Carolina in decades and upon his return is not faced with opened and welcoming arms by authorities or a hostile mother-in-law as the return of a long-lost favored son.

To add to his troubles, he soon becomes responsible for the running of the salvage yard and is forced to start dealing with elderly, set in his ways, cantakerous employee Charlie Soaf. Soaf, a former combat war veteran, is also openly hostile to Hudson, but quickly on, Hudson realizes he needs Charlie Soaf just as much as he needs Hudson.

To many, Soaf is believed to possess more information than he has cared to reveal and as more information is learned, local authorities lean to believe the murder of Hudson’s father may be an incident of a killing through criminal misadventure.

While Hudson and his father had an acrimonious relationship due to past issues, he still feels a need to solve the killing, especially when local law enforcement seem less than enthused in determining the reason for the murder, or more importantly, let alone finding a suspect.

After another grisly find at the salvage yard, Hudson and Charlie then encounter stubbornly unstoppable head-strong teenager Lucy Reyes. Reyes, with methods of her own, is on a mission in solving a mystery of her own and if Hudson and Charlier get in her way, she makes it clear there will be Hell to pay.

The trio then move forward in their investigation leading them to encounters with a collection of oddballs, criminals and do nothing officials spread across several counties in North Carolina.

For me, It Dies With You started out slow and somewhat clumsy, but soon straightened out and picked up and held my attention as the story developed. The novel is set to be released in June of 2022 and succinctly described as a good summer beach read and a good start for a first time novelist.

Netgalley provided an ARC for the return of a fair review.