CLASS STRUGGLES: ELI CRANOR'S BROILERS

Eli Cranor is definitely an author on the rise. He got a lot of attention in the crime fiction world by using his background as a highschool football coach in Don't Know Tough. His follow up, Ozark Dogs, proved he could go beyond his personal life. With his third and latest, Broilers, he delivers his most straightforward plot to showcase some of his most complex characters and themes.

We follow two couples that live in the small town, with three of them working in the same chicken plant, but couldn't be further apart if the Atlantic was between them. Gabriella "Gabby" Menchaca and Edwin Saucedo toil as undocumented workers on the plant line with a grueling work environment that leads to a tragic event. Luke and Mimi Jackson are a an upwardly mobile husband and wife. As one of the plant managers, Luke is up for a major promotion. He has a beautiful wife in Mimi, a healthy one-year old son, Tuck, and even a mistress.

Edwin has been a pain in Luke's side, declaring his rights and planning a walk out. When he shows to work two minutes late during an inspection, Luke fires him. to prove a point. In retaliation, Edwin kidnaps Tuck, and asks for $50,000. Luke needs to keep this quiet with the board considering his promotion, so he takes the matter into his own hands, kicking off events that twist and turn as they escalate with not everyone getting out alive.

Cranor builds tension chapter after chapter. With each step Edwin and Luke make in their dance, we sense it is the wrong one. We're always aware of the gins in their hands and violence they are headed for. I've never read a kidnapping story where I feared more for the abducted.

Gabby and Mimi become the heart of the story. The actions of their men throw them together, where they both se each others lives and are confronted with their own. Much of the suspense comes from hoping the two of them can form an alliance before Edwin and Luke make their bad situation into something nobody can come back from.

The book views how The American Dream affects both couples. Much of Luke and Mimi's lives are defines by all that they own. Luke's striving for the good life has created a wall husband and wife, as well putting him into debt. He has trouble getting the fifty-grand together. It has also blinded then to the people who are exploited to get for their lifestyle. He is even resentful of them, believing their poverty makes them more free. It's that discrepancy and lack of a break that cause Edwin's actions. Life on the floor as even changed them physically. Their lives are defined by what they owe.

Broilers is Eli Cranor at his tightest with less information being withheld and playing with timelines. It allows him and the reader to focus who are living out the story and its theses with a different feel that we get from many rural noirs. His sense of place screams out for a larger population who don't have a voice.