Freight - Large Print by Ryan Lowell (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

As a lone semi-truck makes its snowy way to the US-Canadian border, a series of vivid characters are inexorably drawn into a desperate, comedic, and murderous scheme to steal its precious cargo.

Curtis, a newly hired dispatcher with a newly pregnant wife at home, holds a scrap of paper that identifies a semi-truck trailer that shouldn't exist.

Billy Trask is a weathered and charismatic sociopath, who thinks nothing of quietly killing whomever may come in his way, and carefully guards the coordinates for a truck loaded with $10 million dollars-worth of Canadian pharmaceuticals.

Jimmy, Theo, and Sarah are the not-so-innocent locals poised to stand in Billy's way, none more so than Sarah, a local party girl with the heart and will of a colossus, and who will leave her own trail of mayhem and carnage in her 75-mile-per-hour wake.

In the rough-and-tumble tradition of Dennis Lehane, S.A. Cosby, and classic American noir, Freight is a thrill-ride view of the world of labor, life and love--a searing portrait of men at work and also at their worst.

Review Quotes

"Ryan Lowell brings the heat in Freight. It reads like a classic noir from the get-go, barreling along at an exceptional clip. It's full of great sheer storytelling--gritty, lean, and unstoppable. What a debut."--William Boyle, author of Saint of the Narrows Street

"Ryan Lowell's got the goods. Freight is a lean, propulsive caper with a wicked wit and voice for days."--Chris Holm, author of Red Right Hand

"A full-throttle story about the underworld of trucking that--with absolute gritty authority and a misfit cast of characters--tours you through the truck stops, warehouses, rest areas, and roach motels that line the dark maze of interstate corridors. This book is so lowdown and dirty, your fingers will come away stained with blood and motor grease. I loved every page."--Benjamin Percy, author of The Ninth Metal

"Ryan Lowell's gritty debut Freight is a masterclass in economy: of words, of characters, and lean, mean explosive storytelling. Here is a writer who has put in the work, and it shows on every page."
--Eli Cranor, author of Don't Know Tough

"Freight is the best road read I've read in years. Ryan Lowell writes beautiful, unconstrained dialogue that never loses its authenticity. . .. Fueled by diesel, grist, and greed, Freight is a spectacular debut foot to metal sounding its horn in the passing lane."
--Lee Durkee, author of The Last Taxi Driver & Stalking Shakespeare

"A brutal, clever, and devastating debut. Freight understands the psychology of work like few novels in recent years, laying bare how a job can hollow you out, define you, then trap you, all while turning the Can-Am highway into a moral pressure cooker running hot at all hours. After Freight, I'm ready to ride with Ryan Lowell wherever the road takes him, mile after unforgiving mile."--Eryk Pruitt, author of Something Bad Wrong and Blood Red Summer

About the Author

Ryan Lowell's fiction has appeared in Portland Monthly Magazine, Worker's Write Journal and other publications. His story "Things Fall Apart" was a Glimmer Train short story award contest finalist. Freight is his first novel. He lives in South Portland, Maine, with his wife and two sons.