Lowdown Road by Scott Von Doviak

Lowdown Road by Scott Von Doviak is a book of 1970s hick-flick crime-spree fiction. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “Join a heart-racing road trip across 1970s America as two cousins make the heist of their lives and must avoid the cops and criminals hot on their tails. It's the summer of '74. Richard Nixon has resigned from office, CB radios are the hot new thing, and in the great state of Texas two cousins hatch a plan to drive $1 million worth of stolen weed to Idaho, where some lunatic is gearing up to jump Snake River Canyon on a rocket-powered motorcycle. But with a vengeful sheriff on their tail and the revered and feared marijuana kingpin of Central Texas out to get his stash back, Chuck and Dean are in for the ride of their lives - if they can make it out alive. With Lowdown Road, he cements his reputation for pedal-to-the-metal storytelling that also makes you think about just who we are and where our darker roads might lead us.”

Lowdown Road is the latest crime novel from Scott Von Doviak, full of action and high jinks. Cousins Chuck and Dean are like a more salacious version of Bo and Luke Duke from the 1970s – 80s television series The Dukes of Hazzard, even the back of the book declaring ‘Just two good old boys. Never meaning no harm.’ This novel would make an excellent season to that TV show, but with more violence and sex so it could appear on Cinemax. Chuck and Dean hatch a plan to steal two hundred and fifty pounds of weed and sell it at an Evel Knievel event in Idaho, but they’ve pissed off a kingpin weed dealer, a malevolent county sheriff, a biker bent on revenge, and practically everyone else they encounter. When their plan starts to unravel, can they sell enough of their contraband to make the wild road trip worthwhile?

There’s definitely pedal-to-the-metal storytelling in this novel with a high-speed plot involving many twists and turns as the stakes for the two cousins rises exponentially the closer they get to their Idaho destination. The banter between the cousins is funny at times and they do get themselves into lots of trouble ala Dukes of Hazzard. There were plenty of times when I wished some of the action would slow down and we’d hopefully get an opportunity to savor some of the scenery and characters in a deeper way. But this wasn’t that type of novel and that just wasn’t going to happen; this novel does not make us “think about just who we are.” You will get the pronouncement “It was karate time” though, which was hilarious. So, does it give a blockbuster ending to all this mayhem? The answer: definitely. Druglord Antoine describes it best when he says ‘This is some end times shit right here. Lord of the Flies with a bunch of redneck peckerwoods.’

There is one moment about three-fourths of the way through the story where Dean stands at the edge of the canyon, looking to where Evel Knievel will soon be jumping his motorcycle across to certain death. I thought, finally some introspection. Dean’s realization that ‘no one takes anything with them when they die, so fuck it’ is a bit of eye-rolling cliché that nobody really needs. But if you’re looking for a rollicking good time in book form with fast action and some laughs, then you can’t do any better than Lowdown Road. Von Doviak admits in his acknowledgments that Lowdown Road is the “`70s drive-in movie playing in my mind, my own hick flick in novel form.” And that’s exactly what this book is. Plus, the cover art is throwback perfection.

I enjoyed this book and I recommend it. I would give this book 4 stars.

Buy the paperback on Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/a/152/9781803364131