S.A. (Shawn) Cosby is quickly making a name for himself as one of today's top crime fiction writers. He's won several Anthony Awards, including one for his novel "Blacktop Wasteland" in 2021, one for his novel "Razorblade Tears" and the best short story award for "Not My Cross to Bear" in 2022.
As a result of his critical success, Cosby's publisher Flatiron Books decided to republish his debut novel, "My Darkest Prayer," which was originally published in 2019 by a small Maryland publisher.
The new edition features an introduction in which Cosby writes about his fears of being able to maintain a reader's interest and attention for 250 pages. Fortunately, for us, Cosby overcame his self-doubt and wrote his powerful, suspenseful and unforgettable debut novel.
"I had written a lot of short stories and had some success with those, but I wasn't entirely confident that I had the chops to write a long form novel," Cosby told Wisconsin Public Radio's "BETA."
"And it was one of the things where I got into it, I realized it was infinitely more difficult than I had anticipated," he said. "But at the same time, it gave me the room to spread my wings, so to speak. I had been feeling stifled by the short story form, and so it was sort of this thing where I was afraid to do it. But once I did it, I felt so relieved because it allowed me to tell stories in much more detail than I had been able to previously."
After being in a rhythm of writing short stories, Cosby said it was a challenge to switch to writing a novel.
"With a short story, you're basically playing one note, and to equate it to a musical metaphor, with a novel, it's a symphony," he said.
"But that being said, having the opportunity to be flexible with the tone, with the atmosphere, to delve into more complex and more nuanced character interactions was gratifying to me as a writer," he continued. "So as difficult as I found it at times and as daunting as I found it at times, I also found it to be where I feel most comfortable today."
Much of the action in "My Darkest Prayer" occurs in a funeral home. Cosby said he chose this setting because he was working at a funeral home while writing the novel.
"I was the overnight person on call," he said. "And on nights that I didn't have to go make a call or what we like to call a 'removal' in funeral home speak, I was writing."
"And there is so much storytelling fodder at funeral homes, because you're seeing people at the worst times of their life. But you get to learn a lot about folks as well. You also learn a lot about compassion and empathy and understanding," Cosby continued.
One of Cosby's favorite characters from his work is the protagonist of "My Darkest Prayer," Nathan Waymaker, whom Cosby says feels most like himself.
"Where Nathan differs from me is Nathan is an unmitigated bad---. He can handle himself in multiple types of different situations. I don't think I rise to that level," Cosby said.
"I like for my characters, especially the tough-guy characters, to not just be tough guys. I like for them to have a deep well of emotion to pull from, and you get to see what makes them tough. I think the idea of toughness, the idea of hard-boiled protagonist or noir protagonist can be sort of narrow," he continued. "And I wanted Nathan to be more diverse than that. I wanted him to have more layers than that."
Nathan is a former Marine and sheriff's deputy. His parents were killed in a car accident by a drunken driver. The driver didn't face charges because he's the son of a wealthy businessman in the story; this dynamic is a point of tension for Nathan throughout the novel.
"And he got into a confrontation with a fellow deputy named Victor Cutler, who sort of serves as his secondary antagonist during the course of the book. And Nathan resigned after he threw Victor through the window," Cosby explained. "And I use that story to sort of illustrate a lot of things about Nathan all at once. One, his sense of right and wrong; also that he has a temper and he has delved into ways to try to control that."
Nathan's father was white and his mother was Black. He wanted Nathan's character to "straddle both worlds" in the setting of the novel.
"As someone who has moved among both worlds and maybe felt like a stranger in both places, helps give Nathan that outsider edge," Cosby said. "And because of his outsider status, he is the person who can see more clearly into what the town is and what the denizens of the town are."
"What someone outside of his life or outside of his circle might see as some sort of millstone he has to carry is really his superpower. It's his ability to look past the surface and to see what people really are like when they stop being polite. And I think that he gets that from his background," he continued.