Writing a Multigenerational Crime Masterpiece — Brian Panowich, author of “Bull Mountain,” “Like Lions,” and “Hard Cash Valley” — #202

I belong to a group chat. It used to be about the Seattle Sounders but as they began struggling last season it became more about crime novels, in the vein of Elmore Leonard. We now spend almost as much time talking about writers like SA Cosby, past show guest Eli Cranor, and today’s guest Brian Panowich, than we spend lamenting the Sounders’ inability to score goals at home. 

Our guest this week, Brian Panowich, is the author of Bull Mountain, a novel that has been hailed as the “Hillbilly Godfather”—a description Panowich bristles at. Bull Mountain and his followup, Like Lions, are the story of the Burroughs, a family with a three generation long history of crime and mayhem on their homestead, Bull Mountain in McFalls County, GA. 

Panowich is also the author of Hard Cash Valley, a story about a three way hunt to capture an ill begotten fortune from the Slasher—the World Series for cockfighting.

I’ve read and reread each of Panowich’s novels. They are propulsive page turners with emotional highs and deep lows. Panowich, a firefighter, turned flash fiction writer, turned novelist hails from Georgia and his upcoming novel Nothing But the Bones, from Macmillan, will be released in April.

This is a spoiler free conversation. Even if you haven’t read his books, feel free to dive in.

Also, join us for the next #NerdFarmReads Bookclub: Poverty, By America by Matthew Desmond.

Cast of Characters: Brian – Website & Instagram.

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