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Ana Luz is a wily Iraq War vet, getting by working at a laundromat and doing the occasional favor for a neighborhood drug dealer called Espada. Her mysterious boyfriend Cyril convinces her to rip off Espada and sell the product to one of Cyril’s old friends out in Iowa.
But the old friend isn’t as reliable as he once was, and rather than a clean sale, Cyril and Ana Luz are forced to help move the drugs out west. But the customers are dangerous, the law is suspicious, and Espada doesn’t appreciate being ripped off by a woman who fixing dryers for a living.
The result is a high-speed chase from the tenements of upper Manhattan to the flat heart of America. Ana Luz and Cyril find themselves pursued by corn-fed hustlers, Dominican gangsters, and some suspicious small-town cops. The couple will need all their cunning and muscle just to make one simple drug deal and come out alive.
But the old friend isn’t as reliable as he once was, and rather than a clean sale, Cyril and Ana Luz are forced to help move the drugs out west. But the customers are dangerous, the law is suspicious, and Espada doesn’t appreciate being ripped off by a woman who fixing dryers for a living.
The result is a high-speed chase from the tenements of upper Manhattan to the flat heart of America. Ana Luz and Cyril find themselves pursued by corn-fed hustlers, Dominican gangsters, and some suspicious small-town cops. The couple will need all their cunning and muscle just to make one simple drug deal and come out alive.
198 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 12, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 19, 2020
The name "Preston Lang," a pseudonym for an unknown writer, is a guarantor of quality. His storytelling is inventive, tight, fast-paced, dark, and frothy fun, a semi-punk-rock update of the caustic humor of hardboiled predecessors like Elmore Leonard, Charles Willeford, Ross Thomas, Donald Westlake and any writer who can slip a shiv into your pancreas while you're distracted by a punchline.
LOAD is Lang's fourth short novel by my count, and among his best. He knows New York City well, but his storytelling and characterizations kick into a higher gear when he decides to send them out of town and into the heartland. The story: Cyril and Ana Luz are a couple of low-level losers in the New York City crime world, and when Cyril steals a bag of heroin from a dealer for whom Ana Luz works, the two hit the road in search of a buyer and a new start. The two have a snappy sexual chemistry, and a moderate degree of mutual respect, but, like the couple in classics like BLACK WINGS HAS MY ANGEL, you get the feeling that whether they'll fall in love or slip away from one another is an open question, and that low current of tension between the two keeps LOAD managing the miles of Middle America with a steady low current of thrumming tension. The two take on a partner, and complications pile up as fast as high as the body count.
It's too bad pulp novels like LOAD, full of cooled prose and steady low simmering heart, have long ago fallen out of fashion. If this was 1957 and had this was a Gold Medal or Fawcett or New American Library or Pocket Books paperback on a rack in every drugstore in America, LOAD might get the attention it deserves, and Preston Lang might well be thought of with the same esteem as John D. MacDonald, Charles Williams, Day Keene, Harry Whittington and their like. But, because it's 2019, Lang seems doomed to being a cult favorite, and I for one am a happy cultist.
LOAD is Lang's fourth short novel by my count, and among his best. He knows New York City well, but his storytelling and characterizations kick into a higher gear when he decides to send them out of town and into the heartland. The story: Cyril and Ana Luz are a couple of low-level losers in the New York City crime world, and when Cyril steals a bag of heroin from a dealer for whom Ana Luz works, the two hit the road in search of a buyer and a new start. The two have a snappy sexual chemistry, and a moderate degree of mutual respect, but, like the couple in classics like BLACK WINGS HAS MY ANGEL, you get the feeling that whether they'll fall in love or slip away from one another is an open question, and that low current of tension between the two keeps LOAD managing the miles of Middle America with a steady low current of thrumming tension. The two take on a partner, and complications pile up as fast as high as the body count.
It's too bad pulp novels like LOAD, full of cooled prose and steady low simmering heart, have long ago fallen out of fashion. If this was 1957 and had this was a Gold Medal or Fawcett or New American Library or Pocket Books paperback on a rack in every drugstore in America, LOAD might get the attention it deserves, and Preston Lang might well be thought of with the same esteem as John D. MacDonald, Charles Williams, Day Keene, Harry Whittington and their like. But, because it's 2019, Lang seems doomed to being a cult favorite, and I for one am a happy cultist.
February 14, 2020
Preston Lang has been a favourite for a while now and he returns with a sequel to his debut, The Carrier. Here we initally find a much more confident Cyril looking to work a con of his own against his girlfriend, Ana Luz, when he steals some heroin from her laundromat where she's been allowing local NYC mobsters to store bags of laundry with the drugs concealed. Suffice to say that much like the previous novel Cyril ends up in way over his head.
Lang's stories and prose always have you dying to know what is next and give it too you quickly and compellingly with as always well etched and believable characters. Here he pulls off the trick of going beyond what the natural end point for the story might be and comes out with something much more wretched than the atypical ending for stories where a bags of illicit goods is involved.
Onto Price Hike!!
Lang's stories and prose always have you dying to know what is next and give it too you quickly and compellingly with as always well etched and believable characters. Here he pulls off the trick of going beyond what the natural end point for the story might be and comes out with something much more wretched than the atypical ending for stories where a bags of illicit goods is involved.
Onto Price Hike!!
May 2, 2019
I got this latest Preston Lang novel as an early Birthday present from my son, as I didn't even know that he had a new novel due for release. I just discovered Lang last year and have read all his novels and his collection of short stories in quick succession, as I enjoyed them all so much.
Load, is equally enjoyable, as it follows a similar kind of pattern to his previous novels. Ana Luz is an ex army vet, now working in a laundromat in Manhattan owned by a local Dominican crime boss, Espada, but it's not just a normal laundromat, as it's used as a 'drop', for Espada's drugs and cash. However one night the laundromat gets ripped off by two young robbers and somehow, Ana Luz's boyfriend Cyril ends up in possession of the stash of drugs. He reluctantly convinces Ana Luz that he can shift the drugs and that they can make a new life for themselves with the proceeds, as he has just the right connection they need. Things don't go as smoothly as Cyril wishes and they soon find themselves heading out west and subsidising their trip by selling the drugs as they go. They have Espada on their tail and also have to deal with some local hoods who also want the drugs for themselves. The cops are not far behind, as Ana Luz and Cyril have left a trail of dead bodies behind them too.
Another fast moving story from Preston Lang which explores similar themes to his previous novels, in that for the most part his protagonists are just 'little people' who see and try and seize the opportunity to try and make a better life for themselves by ripping off the bigger fish. Ana Luz is a great protagonist and reminds me of Sam Hawkin's Camaro, in that she is tough, free thinking, independent and is equally at home with a gun in her hand or just her bare knuckles. There are plenty of twists and turns in the story, although I felt at times that these were maybe overplayed just a little bit as there were too many 'coincidences'. There were also plenty of 'bit players' in the novel and although it was just a short novel, Lang managed to flesh these characters out quite nicely, even though they weren't featured for very long. The ending came quite suddenly and like his previous novels you're never really sure till the last few lines how the story will pan out and who the winner will ultimately be.
Load, is equally enjoyable, as it follows a similar kind of pattern to his previous novels. Ana Luz is an ex army vet, now working in a laundromat in Manhattan owned by a local Dominican crime boss, Espada, but it's not just a normal laundromat, as it's used as a 'drop', for Espada's drugs and cash. However one night the laundromat gets ripped off by two young robbers and somehow, Ana Luz's boyfriend Cyril ends up in possession of the stash of drugs. He reluctantly convinces Ana Luz that he can shift the drugs and that they can make a new life for themselves with the proceeds, as he has just the right connection they need. Things don't go as smoothly as Cyril wishes and they soon find themselves heading out west and subsidising their trip by selling the drugs as they go. They have Espada on their tail and also have to deal with some local hoods who also want the drugs for themselves. The cops are not far behind, as Ana Luz and Cyril have left a trail of dead bodies behind them too.
Another fast moving story from Preston Lang which explores similar themes to his previous novels, in that for the most part his protagonists are just 'little people' who see and try and seize the opportunity to try and make a better life for themselves by ripping off the bigger fish. Ana Luz is a great protagonist and reminds me of Sam Hawkin's Camaro, in that she is tough, free thinking, independent and is equally at home with a gun in her hand or just her bare knuckles. There are plenty of twists and turns in the story, although I felt at times that these were maybe overplayed just a little bit as there were too many 'coincidences'. There were also plenty of 'bit players' in the novel and although it was just a short novel, Lang managed to flesh these characters out quite nicely, even though they weren't featured for very long. The ending came quite suddenly and like his previous novels you're never really sure till the last few lines how the story will pan out and who the winner will ultimately be.
November 22, 2020
Lang Does it Again
I wish this guy would write quicker. I have read all of his books and each is a gem. Just a good story, well written, not bloated, funny, and full of sly insights. Just a good crime story with no pat ending—this book as are all of Lang’s books, is a winner. Highly Recommended.
I wish this guy would write quicker. I have read all of his books and each is a gem. Just a good story, well written, not bloated, funny, and full of sly insights. Just a good crime story with no pat ending—this book as are all of Lang’s books, is a winner. Highly Recommended.
May 2, 2019
Preston Lang's crime fiction has a unique quirky spin that I enjoy a great deal.
September 21, 2019
It’s a good one
February 5, 2022
Cyril Smrekar, drug courier-turned dealer (first seen in Lang's impressive debut novel The Carrier) returns for more law-breaking road adventures in Preston Lang's Load. War vet Ana Luz is along for the ride, guarding both Cyril and their valuable stash of heroin while one deal after another goes south. Lang's lean prose and deft plotting kept me locked in to see what would happen next. His well-drawn characters and dry wit makes this much more than a fast ride. The ending is dead on 70s-noir-cult-movie-classic. Did I mention I couldn't put it down? Five stars.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews