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Moses Kincaid #1
Sangre Road
Introducing Moses Kincaid, an ornery, brazen, and possibly punch-drunk bounty hunter who must track down a skip trace into rural Oklahoma, circa summer 1995. Follow along as he comes up against bikers, prison peckerwoods, zombies, pro-midget wrestlers, holes up in no-tell motels and greasy-spoon diners, and gets gifted mouthful after mouthful of heavy-duty pain pills for the bumps and bruises he earns along the way!
“David Tromblay has created a violent and wistful elegy to small-town America that cuts as sharp as an ice pick and goes twice as deep.” — S.A. Cosby , author of Blacktop Wasteland
“Tromblay is a natural storyteller with an ear tuned for dialogue and an imagination that will keep readers wide-eyed and guessing, slack-jawed, and entertained. A manhunt shouldn’t be this fun.” — David Joy , author of When These Mountains Burn
“ Sangre Road is spectacular! From slow-burn to inferno in character development, story and inventive twists and unexpected turns.” — Stephen Mack Jones , author of August Snow and Dead of Winter
“Quick-witted, fast-paced, unpredictable. All roads converge to make Sangre Road a raucous, wide-open, crime-riddled joy ride.” — Michael Farris Smith , author of Nick and Blackwood
“ Sangre Road is a wild trip through a surreal Clinton-era Oklahoma, paced like a small-town stock car race without any rules. And funny as hell to boot.” — Scott Phillips , author of That Left Turn at Albuquerque and The Ice Harvest
“ Sangre Road is a gritty, funny crime caper that beats with a big heart. It’s one part Coen Brothers, one part Elmore Leonard, but also a beast all its own. It takes you to unexpected places and leaves you thinking.” — Nick Kolakowski , author of Boise Longpig Hunting Clu b and A Brutal Bunch of Heartbroken Saps
“Tromblay’s writing is easy to fall into because he is clear and funny, and just when you’re relaxed, he’ll hit you with a line that makes you go ‘hell yeah.’ Sangre Road is alive with the weirdo types of characters you’d see on a given day in Oklahoma, and their color and humanity shine through. Truly a pleasure to read crime fiction this good.” — J. David Osborne , author of Black Gum
“A rough-and-tumble journey through a landscape as colorful as its inhabitants.” — Steph Post , author of Lightwood
“David Tromblay has done that thing we don’t get enough of; a remarkably unlikeable character dropped into a book that’ll make you turn the pages regardless. Tone, smell, dust, and heat all live here on Sangre Road , and the chop-along dialogue will speed you right down to the end of the trail. Buckle up!” — Theo Van Alst Jr , author of Sacred Smokes
“David Tromblay’s Sangre Road pulsates with intensity. It’s scrappy, sharp-edged, wild, and funny. One hell of a memorable ride.” — William Boyle , author of City of Margins and Gravesend
“A thrill ride through Oklahoma alongside the stubborn, punch-drunk, smart-mouthed bounty hunter Moses Kincaid, complete with bikers, prison peckerwoods, zombies, pro midget wrestlers, no-tell motels, greasy-spoon diners, and enough mouthfuls of heavy-duty pain pills to keep you asking, ‘what’s next?’” — Penni Jones , author of Suicide Souls and On the Bricks
“David Tromblay has created a violent and wistful elegy to small-town America that cuts as sharp as an ice pick and goes twice as deep.” — S.A. Cosby , author of Blacktop Wasteland
“Tromblay is a natural storyteller with an ear tuned for dialogue and an imagination that will keep readers wide-eyed and guessing, slack-jawed, and entertained. A manhunt shouldn’t be this fun.” — David Joy , author of When These Mountains Burn
“ Sangre Road is spectacular! From slow-burn to inferno in character development, story and inventive twists and unexpected turns.” — Stephen Mack Jones , author of August Snow and Dead of Winter
“Quick-witted, fast-paced, unpredictable. All roads converge to make Sangre Road a raucous, wide-open, crime-riddled joy ride.” — Michael Farris Smith , author of Nick and Blackwood
“ Sangre Road is a wild trip through a surreal Clinton-era Oklahoma, paced like a small-town stock car race without any rules. And funny as hell to boot.” — Scott Phillips , author of That Left Turn at Albuquerque and The Ice Harvest
“ Sangre Road is a gritty, funny crime caper that beats with a big heart. It’s one part Coen Brothers, one part Elmore Leonard, but also a beast all its own. It takes you to unexpected places and leaves you thinking.” — Nick Kolakowski , author of Boise Longpig Hunting Clu b and A Brutal Bunch of Heartbroken Saps
“Tromblay’s writing is easy to fall into because he is clear and funny, and just when you’re relaxed, he’ll hit you with a line that makes you go ‘hell yeah.’ Sangre Road is alive with the weirdo types of characters you’d see on a given day in Oklahoma, and their color and humanity shine through. Truly a pleasure to read crime fiction this good.” — J. David Osborne , author of Black Gum
“A rough-and-tumble journey through a landscape as colorful as its inhabitants.” — Steph Post , author of Lightwood
“David Tromblay has done that thing we don’t get enough of; a remarkably unlikeable character dropped into a book that’ll make you turn the pages regardless. Tone, smell, dust, and heat all live here on Sangre Road , and the chop-along dialogue will speed you right down to the end of the trail. Buckle up!” — Theo Van Alst Jr , author of Sacred Smokes
“David Tromblay’s Sangre Road pulsates with intensity. It’s scrappy, sharp-edged, wild, and funny. One hell of a memorable ride.” — William Boyle , author of City of Margins and Gravesend
“A thrill ride through Oklahoma alongside the stubborn, punch-drunk, smart-mouthed bounty hunter Moses Kincaid, complete with bikers, prison peckerwoods, zombies, pro midget wrestlers, no-tell motels, greasy-spoon diners, and enough mouthfuls of heavy-duty pain pills to keep you asking, ‘what’s next?’” — Penni Jones , author of Suicide Souls and On the Bricks
178 pages, Paperback
Published April 14, 2022
3 people are currently reading
28 people want to read
About the author
David Tromblay
9 books27 followersDavid Tromblay served in both the Army and the Navy before earning an MFA in Creative Writing. His memoir "As You Were" was named one of the best Nonfiction books of 2021 by Kirkus Reviews. He now writes and lives in rural eastern Oklahoma.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
September 3, 2021
SANGRE ROAD is an enjoyable oddball of a novel, a shambolic ramble through forgotten America with a plot loosely attached and perhaps not entirely necessary, somewhat reminiscent of Denis Johnson's dive into noir, NOBODY MOVE.
There's a sleepy, lightly drugged charm to the prose, punctured by little wisdoms ("Indians make the best cowboys") and draped in detached incident. It's fun of a stumbling, semi-soused sort to follow Moses Kincaid, Ho-Chunk Indian and bounty hunter, take the long way toward his ostensible prey, drifting from low-rent motel to low-rent bowling alley to low-rent restaurant to low-rent auto shop, gathering allies and antagonists alike in the slow spin of his dust, being tough but not too tough about it, taking everything in stoic stride in the style of Elliott Gould's shambling Phillip Marlow in THE LONG GOODBYE. Not everything is OK with Kincaid, but in his way, this dude abides, and so does the reader who follows him.
SANGRE ROAD belongs in a prominent place in the newly growing canon of Oklahoma crime fiction, if only for lines like this: "The problem wasn’t so much the snakes as having to separate the copperheads, cottonmouths, timber, and pygmy rattlers, from the forty or so other kinds of slithering a***oles who call Oklahoma home" and "I’m not an active Christian by any means, but I know how to take orders, camouflage myself, act uniformly with those around me. It’s called soldiering in the Army. It’s the same as being one of the Lord’s sheep come Sunday morning."
SANGRE ROAD is billed as the first of a series, and I for one am on board with the next Moses Kincaid Shamble.
There's a sleepy, lightly drugged charm to the prose, punctured by little wisdoms ("Indians make the best cowboys") and draped in detached incident. It's fun of a stumbling, semi-soused sort to follow Moses Kincaid, Ho-Chunk Indian and bounty hunter, take the long way toward his ostensible prey, drifting from low-rent motel to low-rent bowling alley to low-rent restaurant to low-rent auto shop, gathering allies and antagonists alike in the slow spin of his dust, being tough but not too tough about it, taking everything in stoic stride in the style of Elliott Gould's shambling Phillip Marlow in THE LONG GOODBYE. Not everything is OK with Kincaid, but in his way, this dude abides, and so does the reader who follows him.
SANGRE ROAD belongs in a prominent place in the newly growing canon of Oklahoma crime fiction, if only for lines like this: "The problem wasn’t so much the snakes as having to separate the copperheads, cottonmouths, timber, and pygmy rattlers, from the forty or so other kinds of slithering a***oles who call Oklahoma home" and "I’m not an active Christian by any means, but I know how to take orders, camouflage myself, act uniformly with those around me. It’s called soldiering in the Army. It’s the same as being one of the Lord’s sheep come Sunday morning."
SANGRE ROAD is billed as the first of a series, and I for one am on board with the next Moses Kincaid Shamble.
May 8, 2021
David Tromblay writes with the kind of hypnotic power that you get transported into the heart of Moses Kincaid, so that you’re not reading the words on the page, you’re experiencing them. Sangre Road is dry, quick-witted, and funny, which makes the heartbreak David sets you up for, all the more gut-wrenching. Read this book if you want to witness a master at work.
January 6, 2022
Tromblay kicks off his Moses Kincaid series with a deceptive novel that rakes your eyes, gut-punches you, kicks you in the crotch and finishes you off with a good old Stone Cold Stunner. Moses Kincaid is a half Native American bounty hunter or Bail Bonds recovery agent depending on your proclivities trying to make right following a spell in prison. He's on the hunt of a fugitive away from his native Kansas in Lawson, Oklahoma and as much as Moe thinks he's in control of things, he's really flying by the seat of his pants.
This reminded me of some of the small town stories I've read of Lawrence Block's where the writing is super engaging and the plot take you to unexpected places tending to concentrate more on characters, identity and relationships rather than being some intricately plotted potboiler.
I have a couple more of Tromblay's to read and look forward to Moe's return come April.
This reminded me of some of the small town stories I've read of Lawrence Block's where the writing is super engaging and the plot take you to unexpected places tending to concentrate more on characters, identity and relationships rather than being some intricately plotted potboiler.
I have a couple more of Tromblay's to read and look forward to Moe's return come April.
April 26, 2021
A fast read that I finished in a day. Well written with plenty of quick witted humor and a cast of interesting characters. Looking forward to the next book in this series.
May 25, 2021
In 1995, Kansas-based bounty hunter Moses “Moe” Kincaid travels across state lines into Oklahoma to apprehend a peckerwood named Eric Drumgoole, who has skipped out on a court date. Moe, a recent Desert Storm veteran who describes himself in the first-person narrative as a human battering ram, suspects the man has holed up in the town of Lawson. Drumgoole has questionable ties lurking among the orange Oklahoma dust, including a wife who stays married to him largely because that way “it’s a whole lot easier to pawn his shit.”
Moe is a shell-shocked man on a mission, but in this delirious story, the mission seems almost beside the point. Here and there, readers are treated to interludes relating to the skip-trace, including an encounter with bikers who really, really want to get to Drumgoole first (his court date arises out of the vehicular homicide of two of the bikers’ gang brothers) and the shady establishments Moe must visit in preparation for hauling his mark back to Kansas. But these moments are doled out a little at a time among the dominant story line of a stranger who, to his own surprise, begins to make this strange land a kind of home.
Early on, Moe strikes up an unexpected relationship with Elise, a server at a greasy-spoon diner in town. They bond over their shared smart-ass sense of humor and their Indigenous heritages (she’s Tonkawa, he’s Winnebago), and their playful repartee makes for some sharp and engaging dialogue:
“You’ve got my attention, cowboy.”
That got me to scrunch my mouth, twist my neck, force a smile, and say, “I am not a cowboy.”
“Indians make the best cowboys.”
“Is that so?” I answered.
“What,” she said. “You don’t like poetry?”
As the reader becomes acquainted with Moe, Elise, and her one-armed, cantankerous father, Tromblay paints a portrait of a specific place and a specific time. He grounds the story in details that are quintessentially the 1990s, from the car Moe drives (a Pontiac Sunbird--remember those?) to the obscene supply of pain meds a doctor gives him after his latest ass-whupping as though nothing could go wrong. The latter is a foreboding and surprisingly humorous moment, given what we now know about the opioid scourge a quarter-century later. There are also the racist cops who barely tolerate the Indigenous people inhabiting the town they’ve sworn to protect--though I feel certain one could make the case that this particular detail isn’t relegated just to the past. Still, the axiom that the specific renders a story universal has clear application here.
But there is also an undercurrent of the surreal that flows through the story, keeping one from getting too comfortable. The reader will encounter mad street-corner preachers, visit a church that meets outside in an alley, and be treated to an evening of midget wrestling (see again: 1990s). And there is the moment, toward the end, when two seemingly disconnected observations--one about constellations of stars, the other about buffalo and their nighttime habits--are the entryway into a scene both dreamlike and horrific. It’s a literary sleight of hand that’s startling in its efficacy, because the unexpected reveal strikes like a sledgehammer.
The novel concludes in a manner that assures the reader Moe’s long, strange trip is far from over. Indeed, at the back of the book, the publisher, Shotgun Honey, has gifted us a sample chapter from the second installment in the series, due out in 2022. That is cause for anticipation.
If one seeks a simple paint-by-numbers procedural in which the story’s only concern is (kind of) good guy chasing (arguably) worse guy, this is not the novel for you. But that is not, to my mind, a mark against the book. For those who appreciate crime fiction with muscular prose, three-dimensional characters, and an off-center aesthetic, one can hardly do better.
Moe is a shell-shocked man on a mission, but in this delirious story, the mission seems almost beside the point. Here and there, readers are treated to interludes relating to the skip-trace, including an encounter with bikers who really, really want to get to Drumgoole first (his court date arises out of the vehicular homicide of two of the bikers’ gang brothers) and the shady establishments Moe must visit in preparation for hauling his mark back to Kansas. But these moments are doled out a little at a time among the dominant story line of a stranger who, to his own surprise, begins to make this strange land a kind of home.
Early on, Moe strikes up an unexpected relationship with Elise, a server at a greasy-spoon diner in town. They bond over their shared smart-ass sense of humor and their Indigenous heritages (she’s Tonkawa, he’s Winnebago), and their playful repartee makes for some sharp and engaging dialogue:
“You’ve got my attention, cowboy.”
That got me to scrunch my mouth, twist my neck, force a smile, and say, “I am not a cowboy.”
“Indians make the best cowboys.”
“Is that so?” I answered.
“What,” she said. “You don’t like poetry?”
As the reader becomes acquainted with Moe, Elise, and her one-armed, cantankerous father, Tromblay paints a portrait of a specific place and a specific time. He grounds the story in details that are quintessentially the 1990s, from the car Moe drives (a Pontiac Sunbird--remember those?) to the obscene supply of pain meds a doctor gives him after his latest ass-whupping as though nothing could go wrong. The latter is a foreboding and surprisingly humorous moment, given what we now know about the opioid scourge a quarter-century later. There are also the racist cops who barely tolerate the Indigenous people inhabiting the town they’ve sworn to protect--though I feel certain one could make the case that this particular detail isn’t relegated just to the past. Still, the axiom that the specific renders a story universal has clear application here.
But there is also an undercurrent of the surreal that flows through the story, keeping one from getting too comfortable. The reader will encounter mad street-corner preachers, visit a church that meets outside in an alley, and be treated to an evening of midget wrestling (see again: 1990s). And there is the moment, toward the end, when two seemingly disconnected observations--one about constellations of stars, the other about buffalo and their nighttime habits--are the entryway into a scene both dreamlike and horrific. It’s a literary sleight of hand that’s startling in its efficacy, because the unexpected reveal strikes like a sledgehammer.
The novel concludes in a manner that assures the reader Moe’s long, strange trip is far from over. Indeed, at the back of the book, the publisher, Shotgun Honey, has gifted us a sample chapter from the second installment in the series, due out in 2022. That is cause for anticipation.
If one seeks a simple paint-by-numbers procedural in which the story’s only concern is (kind of) good guy chasing (arguably) worse guy, this is not the novel for you. But that is not, to my mind, a mark against the book. For those who appreciate crime fiction with muscular prose, three-dimensional characters, and an off-center aesthetic, one can hardly do better.
August 1, 2022
An ambling, shambling, rambling rural neo-noir. We follow Moses Kincaid, a bounty hunter from Kansas who has recently landed in a small town in the middle-of-nowhere Oklahoma, looking for a target who's jumped bail. In the typical noir fashion, our protagonist would uncover a web of intrigue and corruption and the plot would thicken. That doesn't really happen in this book. Sangre Road is more about vibes, as the kids these days would say.
And what vibes they are. This is a slapsticky hilarious book full of one misadventure after the other. Gritty and breezy all at once. The prose is terrific. Equal parts Chandler and Lansdale and maybe a dash of some sort of wise and witty travelogue writer. But ultimately, the voice and prose are Tromblay's own.
Only issue I had is that I found the ending to be quite abrupt, almost like it was ready to pick up on another chapter. Maybe this was intentional? I will say that I'm hooked and ready for the next book in the series. I can only hope that the next book picks up soon after and we have a long running series with lots of continuity that only gets more epic the further we go.
And what vibes they are. This is a slapsticky hilarious book full of one misadventure after the other. Gritty and breezy all at once. The prose is terrific. Equal parts Chandler and Lansdale and maybe a dash of some sort of wise and witty travelogue writer. But ultimately, the voice and prose are Tromblay's own.
Only issue I had is that I found the ending to be quite abrupt, almost like it was ready to pick up on another chapter. Maybe this was intentional? I will say that I'm hooked and ready for the next book in the series. I can only hope that the next book picks up soon after and we have a long running series with lots of continuity that only gets more epic the further we go.
April 30, 2021
Quick-witted and sarcastic, brutal in parts but also brutally honest; Sangre Road was the first book I’ve read by the author, so I didn’t know what to expect. However, I have a hunch that Moses Kincaid would have given me quite a few happy surprises no matter my expectations. I loved every minute of it. The dialog is fantastic and entertaining, had me laughing out loud in parts. Looking forward to the next one!
April 25, 2021
This is my favorite from this writer. I can’t wait to see what comes next! Must read!
April 19, 2022
READ MY FULL REVIEW AT Best Thriller Books
Sangre Road is the kind of book that is so good it makes you want to send hate mail to the author. The tragic events that David Tromblay writes will crush your heart. You wish he’d just take your sense of hope and bury it in a shallow grave off the shoulder of a rural highway, but he keeps digging deeper like he’s looking for oil or natural gas in the red clay of your soul.
In rural Oklahoma, circa 1995, bounty hunter Moses Kincaid is hot on the tracks of someone who skipped bond. What should have been a relatively routine operation, turns into a series of off the wall adventures including run-ins with bikers, wrestlers, drugged up zombies, and all the rural greasy spoon diners and cheap motels you could ever want.
Make sure to check out the full review
Sangre Road is the kind of book that is so good it makes you want to send hate mail to the author. The tragic events that David Tromblay writes will crush your heart. You wish he’d just take your sense of hope and bury it in a shallow grave off the shoulder of a rural highway, but he keeps digging deeper like he’s looking for oil or natural gas in the red clay of your soul.
In rural Oklahoma, circa 1995, bounty hunter Moses Kincaid is hot on the tracks of someone who skipped bond. What should have been a relatively routine operation, turns into a series of off the wall adventures including run-ins with bikers, wrestlers, drugged up zombies, and all the rural greasy spoon diners and cheap motels you could ever want.
Make sure to check out the full review
April 25, 2021
This is my favorite book from this writer so far. I can’t wait to see what comes next!
April 30, 2023
I enjoyed this book. He is a great storyteller. I would recommend it
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews