When she was just a baby, Joanna’s dad went to prison for murder. She’s grown up with her grandfather, living at the junkyard. Jeremiah will do anything to keep her safe. But now, she’s disappeared. Blood feud and violence, white supremacy, drugs, family, and love. What will it take to get her back? Joanna is a strong and intelligent character in this interesting story.

As much as I loved Don't Know Tough, I found Ozark Dogs to be a quantum leap in style plot and character. If you are an audiobook listener, you'll find Eli Cranor's narration pitch perfect!

This felt somewhat like Yellowstone, but add in a Hatfields & McCoys arc. A good read alike or modern book to give western readers.

A gritty and raw look at the Deep South. Read like a Netflix documentary. Page turning and a great sophomoric effort

Arkansas author and former high school football coach Eli Cranor produced, for me, arguably the best debut crime novel of last year with the extraordinary Don’t Know Tough. With its evocative prose and jagged first-person voice of rage-filled, abused teenage football star Billy Lowe, it heralded the arrival of a powerful new storyteller.

So I was curious to crack open Ozark Dogs, Cranor’s second effort that’s part-inspired by a true story from his Arkansas hometown. Not only is there no ‘sophomore slump’, Ozark Dogs may be even better than Cranor’s brilliant debut. High standards, exceeded.

Jeremiah Fitzjurls is an old man with violence scratching at his soul; a Vietnam War sniper with a Bronze Star, an armoury full of weapons, and too many bad memories. His days are spent crushing cars at his junkyard and trying to protect his beloved granddaughter Joanna from sins new and old. His son, Joanna’s father, is in prison for murder. Their town doesn’t forget, and neither have the Ledfords, a vicious concoction of white supremacists and meth dealers. So when Joanna disappears after Homecoming, a violent reckoning is coming, unless Craven County Sheriff Mona McNabb can stop it.

Ozark Dogs is the kind of book that burrows beneath your skin. Cranor’s crafted a gritty, epic tale of family burdens and long shadows cast by past misdeeds. Terrible people or good people making terrible choices; the awful impact may be the same. Superb.

“Learned real quick there’s some dogs you got to keep locked up. Is it the same with people? That why you did what you did? You thought I’s different somehow?”

This is a bleak story of family secrets, trauma, and revenge. It’s a story that centers around the sins of fathers and the repercussions rippling down the generations. It’s the story of hard scrabble lives and blood spilled in the past and present.

Author Eli Cranor’s writing is sparse and hard like the lives of his characters. This is gritty Southern noir and Cranor is quickly establishing himself as one of the leading voices of the genre. Last year Cranor’s debut novel Don’t Know Tough won rave reviews. Now Cranor’s sophomore effort is garnering lots of early praise.

This isn’t always an easy story to read, but I guarantee you won’t forget it.