I’m a sucker for southern noir and Scott Blackburn perfectly balances grit and heart in his acclaimed debut, It Dies With You (a Writer’s Bone best of 2022 pick). Hudson Miller, the protagonist is a washed-up ex-boxer who inherits his estranged father’s salvage yard after his dad is killed on site. When another mysterious death is revealed, Hudson teams up with a surly senior and a spunky teenaged girl to investigate. You can order a copy here to find out why Publisher’s weekly called Blackburn a gifted author: https://www.amazon.com/Dies-You-Novel-Scott-Blackburn-ebook/dp/B094GNWCPQ
Blackburn was kind enough to share the letter that landed him an agent on his first try:
I am writing to seek representation for my first novel, It Dies with You, a Southern crime fiction of around 66,000 words. I’ve sought you specifically due to your impressive client list of both literary and commercial fiction, specifically that of Michael Farris Smith and Daniel Woodrell.
After his promising boxing career is put on hold by a suspension, 29-year-old Hudson Miller is desperate for money. He’s bouncing at a local dive bar to make ends meet when an unexpected opportunity comes along. His estranged father, Leland, is murdered in an apparent robbery-gone-bad, and his business, a salvage yard called Miller’s Pull-a-part, has been left to Hudson.
When Hudson returns to his hometown of Flint Creek, North Carolina to run the salvage yard, he soon learns that his father’s business was far more than junk cars and scrap metal; it was the site of an illegal gun-running ring. But the secrets don’t end there; the body of a local missing man is discovered in the yard. Reeling for answers when his own life is put in danger, Hudson forms an unlikely bond with his dad’s former employee, a 70-year-old, beer-guzzling Vietnam vet named Charlie, and the sister of the dead man, a feisty teenage girl named Lucy. What the trio of outcasts uncover will shake the tight-knit town of Flint Creek to its very core.
Complete at 65,800 words, It Dies with You is a Southern-fried tale in the vein of crime fiction authors Michael Farris Smith, David Joy, and Joe Lansdale.
I’m an educator and a 2017 graduate of the Mountainview MFA program, mentored largely by Southern writer Wiley Cash. My previous work has appeared in Deep South Magazine.
Thank you very much for your time. I have also included two blurbs from fellow crime fiction writers.
Best,
Scott Blackburn