It’s Dark Neon & Dirt And Hell Is Hot

Alright boys and girls, I’m back in the saddle again with my latest review by our loveable British Vietnamese bloke, Thomas Trang, Dark Neon & Dirt. It’s a novel more delicious than a spirited bowl of Pho on a cold day or nursing a hangover, and more slap you upside the head on the plot than anything PenguinRandomSchuster has released in the genre in twenty years.

Now let’s get down to the nitty gritty of this Crime Thriller Noir.

When the book opens, we are thrown into the fucked up shit of Shaun Nguyen, a down on his luck mixed raced Vietnamese war baby turned Marine Veteran who has survived taking sketchy gigs in Los Angeles that utilize his military training and war experiences from Lundell, his handler. In this case it’s not a Lundell mission but a Semper Fi favor, as his former squadron member Podesta has asked Shaun to come on in on a heist he has cooked up with some even sketchier cats for a big payday. Of course, this goes tits up and sideways as hell as these people Shaun doesn’t know turn on the team and sets about killing them. Always prepared, Shaun plants a cute little surprise that cuts them down after they kill Podesta and gives him the advantage, leaving only him alive to sort all the bullshit out, because one thing Shaun doesn’t like is surprises and double-crosses.

Roll opening credits because this is how Dark Neon & Dirt begins.

From here the novel is split into two main plots which is a new spin on the cat and mouse hunt in crime thriller noir novels. One is the hunt to solve the mystery of the heist gone bad from seasoned Detective Monroe, who is that all American Starsky and Hutch type of cop obsessed about finding his man until his ego interferes with his perspective. The other is Shaun trying to get justice for Podesta the only way he knows how, which makes him do things he shouldn’t aligning himself with strange bedfellows and mistrustful patriots to keep his promise to take care of Podesta’s family and get them his fair share then disappear without complications. All obsessions lead everybody to clash on the same road at some point, an inevitability that Shaun sees but tries to outrace because he’s a man on his last Semper Fi mission and that is the most important thing that keeps him one step ahead.

Now this is where the side plots and backstories are just all types of drag queen fucked up messy to give us more context into the two main plots. Shaun is a fucking mental case, fucking around with people he has no business with but that’s his way of living dangerously. First there’s Lindell, his handler/father figure that seems iffy as hell because you just don’t know whether or not he’s looking out for him or waiting to throw him under the bus. Then there’s Shaun innocently dating Keri, a former FBI agent in town on a holiday who he meets at the gym and hides quite a few secrets that compromise Shaun since they only know each other from the gym they work out in. And then there’s the deceased Podesta. Shaun bumps into him after years of not seeing him and sees that construction work isn’t a good adjustment for him. In fact, it’s hiding the fact he’s a dope fiend that just never got used to not being on a battlefield and is washing his blues away with drugs. Despite this and his good logic he still agrees to help him do the heist that opens the novel, because being a brother of Semper Fi he feels its his duty to continue to help him and his family no matter the sacrifice. That alone leads him into at least four fucked up situations post Podesta’s death while he’s trying to find the money.

Now that’s about all I can say without giving away all the juicy ass details that bring the story home and spoiling the fuck out of it for those that want to sink their teeth into it. If you’ve read any of my previous book reviews, you know I’m a sucker for a twist ending. Bay-bee, you got a couple with a motherfucking trojan horse as a bonus with this book! Is it clean? Not as much as it could have been, but it doesn’t discredit the ending in any way whatsofuckingever because Thomas Trang gives you more than the reader should even ask for with this one. I will say in fairness there are some slow parts here and there at the beginning but middle to end, it’s a fucking page turner. I couldn’t stop reading it until I finished it once I got to the halfway point.

This is the suspense novel you want to read that keeps you guessing at all of its twists and turns. Kensington Publishing, who bought out Holloway House, need their asses kicked for passing on this book. Now go be snitches in the dark neon and dirt and tell them I said that.