Fast: "Missouri Homegrown" by Jesse James Kennedy

Fast: Missouri Homegrown by Jesse James Kennedy, 2017, 9781935797746.

Crider said to read this so I bought it for the library. Another Southern-Missouri-Is-A-Hell-Hole-Of-Crime-And-Violence-And-You-Should-Avoid-The-Area-At-All-Costs novel. This is very fast moving and has some cliches that make me feel like I was reading the tie-in to a B movie. I thought the story ran a little long and got lost among all the shoot-outs, but the book is a good action read and I enjoyed it. There is lots of drugs, tough guy talk, shoot outs, beatings, ambushes, etc. to keep you going.

Jay McCray and his nephew Jack live in Southeast Missouri and grow marijuana for a living. They live in the deep woods and, except for boozing it up at a couple local bars, they live in isolation. When a Mexican drug cartel starts branching out from Kansas City and St. Louis they demand the McCrays join the fold. The McCrays tell the cartel to stuff it. The cartel sends out a dozen men to kill the McCrays. Since Kennedy is giving us a couple Hillbilly Outlaw Super Crook Woodsmen the cartel hit squad are slaughtered by the two McCrays.

The novel begins at the end of that mass killing and the action keeps spooling out from there. The cartel sends along more men to deal with the McCrays and two of those guys are at loggerheads. The FBI had an uncover Special Agent among the hit squad and they start investigating the McCrays as well. Jimbo McCray, Jack's father and Jay's brother kills several prison guards to escape his prison and shows up at the McCray house. Cops are crooked. People are scared.

Booze is consumed by the gallon. Marijuana is consumed by the pound. Mayhem ensues. I thought the story dragged out a bit at the end but I enjoyed the novel.

Comments:
1. Kennedy says he wrote the book in sections and sent those to his nephew in prison. The nephew then passed the sections around to fellow inmates the guards. The story seemed episodic and I wonder if that is why.
2. Jimbo McCray's prison escape leaves about five or six people dead. I call bullshit on someone getting out that easily. But, oh well, it's a novel. But, I also call bullshit on Jimbo not being hunted down by every spare police officer, deputy, prison guard, game warden, highway trooper, railroad cop, and ATF/FBI/DEA/Marshalls/Homeland/Postal Service/Customs/USSS agent available within 200 miles.
3. Kennedy set things up for a sequel and Kennedy's Facebook says the upcoming sequel is entitled Tijuana Mean. I'll buy that.
4. Kennedy's bio says he was in the service, went a little wild, did some time, went to work. Did I try to look him up in Missouri court records? Well, of course I did. Did I find anything? Nope. Do I feel some professional shame in drawing a blank in my search? Yes, but my defense is that I did a short search and spent little time performing the search.