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Hillbilly Hustle
Knox Thompson thinks he’s working a hustle, but it’s a hustle that’s working him. Trying to keep his pizza shop and parents afloat, he cleans out a backroom Kentucky poker game only to be roped into dealing marijuana by the proprietor—an arrangement Knox only halfheartedly resists.
Knox’s shop makes the perfect front for a marijuana operation, but his supplier turns out to be violent and calculating, and Knox ends up under his thumb. It’s not long before more than just the pizza shop is at risk.
Knox’s shop makes the perfect front for a marijuana operation, but his supplier turns out to be violent and calculating, and Knox ends up under his thumb. It’s not long before more than just the pizza shop is at risk.
264 pages, Paperback
Published March 1, 2020
19 people are currently reading
348 people want to read
About the author
Wes Browne
4 books96 followersWes Browne lives within the Kentucky River Basin in Madison County, Kentucky. He has practiced law as a criminal defense attorney, prosecutor, and public defender in Appalachia for over 24 years. He also helps run his family's pizza shops.
His novel They All Fall the Same was named one of Book Riot's Best Books of 2025 (So Far) and one of the Biggest Mysteries and Thrillers of 2025 by Goodreads. His 2020 debut, Hillbilly Hustle, was named one of the Best Lockdown Reads by Merriam-Webster.
His novel They All Fall the Same was named one of Book Riot's Best Books of 2025 (So Far) and one of the Biggest Mysteries and Thrillers of 2025 by Goodreads. His 2020 debut, Hillbilly Hustle, was named one of the Best Lockdown Reads by Merriam-Webster.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
October 3, 2020
Knox Thompson is in over his head before he realizes it. One minute he’s playing poker to earn some money to keep his pizza shop open while also helping his struggling parents with their bills and the next he’s selling pot for Burl, the guy with the losing hand.
The extra money is nice but then he needs a loan in order to keep his business afloat. The last person you want to owe money to is your weed guy but … desperate times and all. Poor Knox just can’t catch a break and soon he’s lost his girlfriend, his prized possessions, and needs to sell the pizza shop as Burl’s threats increase.
The characters feel authentic and the story is entertaining enough as it spirals quickly out of control but it's been done before and isn't all that memorable for me. Still, a notable addition to Appalachian fiction with a mix of crime and dark humor.
For more reviews, visit www.rootsandreads.wordpress.com
The extra money is nice but then he needs a loan in order to keep his business afloat. The last person you want to owe money to is your weed guy but … desperate times and all. Poor Knox just can’t catch a break and soon he’s lost his girlfriend, his prized possessions, and needs to sell the pizza shop as Burl’s threats increase.
The characters feel authentic and the story is entertaining enough as it spirals quickly out of control but it's been done before and isn't all that memorable for me. Still, a notable addition to Appalachian fiction with a mix of crime and dark humor.
For more reviews, visit www.rootsandreads.wordpress.com
May 16, 2020
Oh, how I love a book that leaves me with a smile on my face! And Hillbilly Hustle, by Wes Browne, is the first book to do that since I read Fredrick Backman's My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She's Sorry.
There's so much to love about this book, the writing is outstanding, the plot is brilliant, but it is the characters that are so well-crafted they are jumping off the page. And I have to say something about the title - what a perfect title for Knox Thompson's story! The title has more than one facet - and it didn't hit me the true meaning of a "hillbilly" hustle until the end.
Knox Thompson finds himself at age forty with nothing to brag about except a pizza place called Porthos, that even though people agree it has the best pizza, barely breaks even. Knox lives in Richmond, KY where without EKU students, his business wouldn't survive at all. The story begins with Knox elbowing his way into a high-stakes poker game in the hopes of getting enough cash to stay afloat. That is his first mistake! Winning was "losing" in that game because Knox foundse himself at the mercy of the poker game's leader, Burl, and his mercenaries who force Knox into selling pot from the "back" of his business. That is his second mistake! From there, Knox quickly falls further and further into debt to Burl, but bless his little heart, he thinks he "can handle it". That is is third and fatal mistake!
Knox is one of those characters you want to hug while saying to him, "You are such a dumbass!" Because Knox never stops thinking he can outsmart Burl, even though he's repeatedly
shown otherwise - and I'll stop there, so I won't give away what "otherwise" is. Trust me, Hillbilly Hustle is a wild ride that will leave you with a character you won't forget, a look at what true friends are, and how quickly one wrong turn can change your life. What a great book!
There's so much to love about this book, the writing is outstanding, the plot is brilliant, but it is the characters that are so well-crafted they are jumping off the page. And I have to say something about the title - what a perfect title for Knox Thompson's story! The title has more than one facet - and it didn't hit me the true meaning of a "hillbilly" hustle until the end.
Knox Thompson finds himself at age forty with nothing to brag about except a pizza place called Porthos, that even though people agree it has the best pizza, barely breaks even. Knox lives in Richmond, KY where without EKU students, his business wouldn't survive at all. The story begins with Knox elbowing his way into a high-stakes poker game in the hopes of getting enough cash to stay afloat. That is his first mistake! Winning was "losing" in that game because Knox foundse himself at the mercy of the poker game's leader, Burl, and his mercenaries who force Knox into selling pot from the "back" of his business. That is his second mistake! From there, Knox quickly falls further and further into debt to Burl, but bless his little heart, he thinks he "can handle it". That is is third and fatal mistake!
Knox is one of those characters you want to hug while saying to him, "You are such a dumbass!" Because Knox never stops thinking he can outsmart Burl, even though he's repeatedly
shown otherwise - and I'll stop there, so I won't give away what "otherwise" is. Trust me, Hillbilly Hustle is a wild ride that will leave you with a character you won't forget, a look at what true friends are, and how quickly one wrong turn can change your life. What a great book!
February 27, 2020
Uncut Pies (2020, dir. Josh and Benny Safdie)
April 9, 2020
If The Big Lebowski, Justified, and Elmore Leonard all got together and had a baby this is what you’d get. Terrific read.
January 29, 2025
A little less violent than his second book and more of a character study. I liked reading the books in opposite order than released.
March 4, 2020
This is a fast-paced exciting book and I couldn’t put it down. I loved every minute of it. I only wished it could have gone on for another adventure, and I hope there’s a follow up.
Browne’s characters are well drawn and the voices coming from central and Appalachian Kentucky ring authentic. These are characters you care about, especially those who work at the pizza shop. (Not so much Burl or Greek, but boy are they interesting!)
This is my favorite book so far this year, and actually probably in a long while. I loved it!
Browne’s characters are well drawn and the voices coming from central and Appalachian Kentucky ring authentic. These are characters you care about, especially those who work at the pizza shop. (Not so much Burl or Greek, but boy are they interesting!)
This is my favorite book so far this year, and actually probably in a long while. I loved it!
June 1, 2020
As Hawthorne might have said, easy reading is damn hard writing, and if that’s the case, then Wesley Browne has worked damn hard on Hillbilly Hustle. The reader easily keeps pace with the momentum of the storytelling. Think of a pizza wagon’s brakes failing on a mountain two-lane, and the pizza man is stoned. . . . Anybody who is familiar with small Southern towns, especially, perhaps, small Southern college towns, is liable to find Knox Thompson and the Porthos Pizza crew familiar and friendly. And because we like them so much, we white-knuckle it with them through this terrific story.
October 28, 2020
It wasn’t Tonya Harding’s white trash roots that sold me on I, Tonya as a country noir flick, or even the homemade fur coat. It was the intense incompetence of the men tasked with doing the deed against Nancy Kerrigan. Incompetent crooks hold a special place in the subgenre. There are archvillains, to be sure, but country noir storytellers recognize that most criminals are knuckleheads (which certainly reconciles with my own time working in the criminal justice system).
Hillbilly Hustle has a knucklehead for a protagonist, Knox Thompson. He doesn’t stand a chance once he is in the web of archvillain Burl.
Admittedly, when I talk about the role of knuckleheads in country noir, I may be giving too much weight to the work of Elmore Leonard, whose work never fully exemplifies country noir in my mind, no matter how much I like. And the comparison is natural—the cover blurb compares Browne to Leonard.
That and other blurbs name drop Ron Rash, the Coen Brothers, Willie Nelson, Raymond Chandler, Donald Ray Pollack, and John Kennedy Toole. I liked this book a lot, but most of those comparisons are unfair. You don’t want expectations for your next novel or your college basketball team set too high walking in. (On the other hand, I really want to read a country noir Confederacy of Dunces now.)
Knox is good at two things: playing poker and making pizza (he would tell you it’s three things). He is blessed enough to be able to make money at both. Just not enough money. The pizza joint he owns in Richmond, Kentucky is one disaster away from shutting down, despite being an easy walk from EKU. And poker in America just isn’t what it used to be. Casting farther and farther afield for a good game leads him to an exceedingly sketchy game above an arcade in the next county over.
These poker scenes usually end with the protagonist in a world of trouble because he loses a big hand (see: Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels). Knox does the only thing worse than lose big—he wins big. The game is run (in more ways than one) by local crime boss Burl, a very bad dude and genuine archvillain who, nonetheless, has good taste and music and is not unreasonable. He offers Knox a choice—Knox can walk away with his money and get robbed or he can use that money to buy a pound of Burl’s pot.
Worse things could happen to Knox than selling pot. Like borrowing money from Burl when disaster does strike at his pizza joint.
They say write what you know. Browne adds a lot of verisimilitude with fine detail on poker, pizza, and, briefly, at a key point near the climax, the law. Presumably Browne knows plenty about all three. He is a practicing lawyer and owns a pizza joint in Richmond, Apollo Pizza (pictured above). Hillbilly Hustle is based in part on the real history of the pizza joint (and wouldn’t I love to hear that story in full!).
Knox as the main character weakens the story. He is too foolish in his choices (if believably in-character in them) to root for. And he is too passive to drive the story once it becomes a matter of extricating himself from a bad situation (on the other hand, he is very good at getting himself into a bad situation and making it worse). Burl, on the other hand, is a great villain. A lesser writer would make him a caricature, but in Browne’s hands his quirks enhance the character rather than define it. Raving maniacs can be fun, but they get old, too. A villain who is not unreasonable is a nice change of pace. Burl doesn’t want to kill Knox, you see, but it would be bad business to not kill someone who doesn’t pay you back. You get the sense Burl is mainly exasperated he went into business with someone so obviously and egregiously incompetent.
All in all, this is a fun little book that I knocked out in two days. It left me hungry for more of Browne’s fiction, and it really left me hungry for some pizza.
Hillbilly Hustle has a knucklehead for a protagonist, Knox Thompson. He doesn’t stand a chance once he is in the web of archvillain Burl.
Admittedly, when I talk about the role of knuckleheads in country noir, I may be giving too much weight to the work of Elmore Leonard, whose work never fully exemplifies country noir in my mind, no matter how much I like. And the comparison is natural—the cover blurb compares Browne to Leonard.
That and other blurbs name drop Ron Rash, the Coen Brothers, Willie Nelson, Raymond Chandler, Donald Ray Pollack, and John Kennedy Toole. I liked this book a lot, but most of those comparisons are unfair. You don’t want expectations for your next novel or your college basketball team set too high walking in. (On the other hand, I really want to read a country noir Confederacy of Dunces now.)
Knox is good at two things: playing poker and making pizza (he would tell you it’s three things). He is blessed enough to be able to make money at both. Just not enough money. The pizza joint he owns in Richmond, Kentucky is one disaster away from shutting down, despite being an easy walk from EKU. And poker in America just isn’t what it used to be. Casting farther and farther afield for a good game leads him to an exceedingly sketchy game above an arcade in the next county over.
These poker scenes usually end with the protagonist in a world of trouble because he loses a big hand (see: Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels). Knox does the only thing worse than lose big—he wins big. The game is run (in more ways than one) by local crime boss Burl, a very bad dude and genuine archvillain who, nonetheless, has good taste and music and is not unreasonable. He offers Knox a choice—Knox can walk away with his money and get robbed or he can use that money to buy a pound of Burl’s pot.
Worse things could happen to Knox than selling pot. Like borrowing money from Burl when disaster does strike at his pizza joint.
They say write what you know. Browne adds a lot of verisimilitude with fine detail on poker, pizza, and, briefly, at a key point near the climax, the law. Presumably Browne knows plenty about all three. He is a practicing lawyer and owns a pizza joint in Richmond, Apollo Pizza (pictured above). Hillbilly Hustle is based in part on the real history of the pizza joint (and wouldn’t I love to hear that story in full!).
Knox as the main character weakens the story. He is too foolish in his choices (if believably in-character in them) to root for. And he is too passive to drive the story once it becomes a matter of extricating himself from a bad situation (on the other hand, he is very good at getting himself into a bad situation and making it worse). Burl, on the other hand, is a great villain. A lesser writer would make him a caricature, but in Browne’s hands his quirks enhance the character rather than define it. Raving maniacs can be fun, but they get old, too. A villain who is not unreasonable is a nice change of pace. Burl doesn’t want to kill Knox, you see, but it would be bad business to not kill someone who doesn’t pay you back. You get the sense Burl is mainly exasperated he went into business with someone so obviously and egregiously incompetent.
All in all, this is a fun little book that I knocked out in two days. It left me hungry for more of Browne’s fiction, and it really left me hungry for some pizza.
October 12, 2021
Insane, entertaining, and oddly moving
May 13, 2020
this is not meant as a knock but this book is basically if someone wrote a totally serviceable scumbro-noir about comic book guy from the simpsons. and set it in richmond KY. and replaced the comic book store with a failing pizza place. goofy, weird, written by someone who actually owns a pizza place in richmond KY. doesn't lean too hard on THIS BOOK IS SET IN APPALACHIA AND SHIT IS DIFFERENT HERE. also the denouement is really charming despite being kind of grisly and very on-the-nose america 2020.
also i think it's rad that a university press put this out. i have a crush on WVU press.
also i think it's rad that a university press put this out. i have a crush on WVU press.
March 4, 2020
I enjoyed this novel a whole lot. Knox, the main character is a young character with too many responsibilities who gets talked into selling weed. He sees it as the only way to save his pizza place and protect his parents. As most of us know, it is easier to make a bad decision than to go back. So the story traces the consequences. It is at times sad, humorous, with an element of mystery. A page turner.
March 4, 2020
Could not put this book down. Full of colorful characters, it leaves you wondering about them long after you're done reading. Great tale of small timers getting in too deep. I would highly recommend this book.
February 16, 2022
Being a Kentuckian who is currently taking an Appalachian Studies class, I very much enjoyed Hillbilly Hustle.
I have read several novels by Ky authors like Silas House, Robert Gipe and Barbara Kingsolver. I found Browne’s story engaging, and it was fun to read about central Ky settings that are familiar to me. Overall, great book!
I have read several novels by Ky authors like Silas House, Robert Gipe and Barbara Kingsolver. I found Browne’s story engaging, and it was fun to read about central Ky settings that are familiar to me. Overall, great book!
September 27, 2020
After the first 12 pages about a poker game (ho-hum), this was a riveting romp through the underworld of eastern Kentucky.
August 2, 2024
I thought it was pretty good.
June 7, 2021
It's been a year since I read this book, so I can't give a detailed review other than I enjoyed it thoroughly. It's a bit of Tarantino in Appalachia. Great characters and setting.
April 30, 2021
I loved this hilarious and utterly gripping gem of a southern noir about a charming, pot-selling poker player who wins big and then plays every hand wrong. The characters and setting come right off the page and the riveting plot makes it impossible to put this clever crime novel down.
March 14, 2020
Congratulations awesome read
Having lived in Richmond this book was like a walk down memory lane, I could picture Apollos, Party Wagon, Water street and even the tattoo shop and the real people that ran these businesses. Aside from the memory walk this book is full of suspense and would recommend it to anyone! Keep writing my friend, this is just the beginning!
Having lived in Richmond this book was like a walk down memory lane, I could picture Apollos, Party Wagon, Water street and even the tattoo shop and the real people that ran these businesses. Aside from the memory walk this book is full of suspense and would recommend it to anyone! Keep writing my friend, this is just the beginning!
March 4, 2020
Knox is a flawed but likable main character that gets himself and his pizza shop into a bind thanks to a poker game. A lot of local flavor and descriptive writing make Hillbilly Hustle an enjoyable, quick read.
March 13, 2020
Fast paced paced and fun. Going to make a great movie.
January 22, 2021
This is the cringiest thing I've read in ages. How on earth is this rated so well?!
February 28, 2021
I’m a sucker for any book that makes me wince a couple of times, gives me a few laughs and surprises me in the end. Hillbilly Hustle did it all. Well done Mr Browne.
December 5, 2023
Knox Thompson is that affable guy we all know and love—but we want to strangle. Stumbling through a life full of good ideas marked by bad executions, Knox can’t help but bring out the best in others, and the worst in himself. Browne drops us into Knox’s world right as he’s about to reach his Zenith.
Thus cautionary tale is built on the bedrock of strong characters, rich scenery, and meaningful themes. Much like Elmore Leonard and Mark Twain, Browne has wrapped this thoughtful literary novel in a cloak of dark humor.
I’m a just world Netflix or Max will turn this into a series, because, after all, Knox has much to learn.
Thus cautionary tale is built on the bedrock of strong characters, rich scenery, and meaningful themes. Much like Elmore Leonard and Mark Twain, Browne has wrapped this thoughtful literary novel in a cloak of dark humor.
I’m a just world Netflix or Max will turn this into a series, because, after all, Knox has much to learn.
November 28, 2025
By the end, felt almost like I’d lived through the events described. On the whole, that’s a good thing. The narrative is a bit dense, and there are a few moments where it starts to drag, but the density allows the characters to develop and come to life. And the plot is gripping enough to keep you reading.
April 10, 2023
An indie-published Carl Hiaasen-in-bluegrass-country yarn, Wesley Browne's portrayal of Kentucky lowlifes rings with authenticity that remains weirdly charming anyway.
Good dialog, engaging trivia, strong pacing, relatable characters with relatable problems, and just enough geeky wit to keep you turning pages. Through it all, Browne runs Hiaasen-like socio-political threads of economic desperation, predatory capitalism, the painful ironies of American exceptionalism (especially in "the heartland"), and the human realities of "Red State" people and places. Not great art but a damn good read. This is apparently Browne's only publication so far, but I look forward to reading his future work.
Good dialog, engaging trivia, strong pacing, relatable characters with relatable problems, and just enough geeky wit to keep you turning pages. Through it all, Browne runs Hiaasen-like socio-political threads of economic desperation, predatory capitalism, the painful ironies of American exceptionalism (especially in "the heartland"), and the human realities of "Red State" people and places. Not great art but a damn good read. This is apparently Browne's only publication so far, but I look forward to reading his future work.
June 19, 2025
I made it almost halfway through but just like They All Fall the Same, it really, really started dragging. I’m bummed. I wanted to love Wes Browne’s work, but I don’t. His characters are interesting and memorable but the stories he crafts around them need work.
August 4, 2025
Got a chance to meet the author at a Backroads Noir event and got really interested in this book. Knox may be good at making pizza and playing poker, but he’s in over his head when he gets involved with a pot dealer.
September 17, 2022
A good fun read with twists and turns that left me hopeful for a fun bunch of characters despite their very real desperation.
September 22, 2023
I liked that the book described the life of schlump who couldn't quite make a go of a pizza shop.
Narrow slice of life I did not find riveting.
Narrow slice of life I did not find riveting.
March 10, 2025
So so good! Especially if you are from this area! I listened to the audio and loved the narrator too!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews