American Heroin

Praise

“You can’t help loving this coldblooded murderer.” – KIRKUS REVIEWS

“Love crafts a first-rate plot, but this crime thriller’s real strength is the character study of Lola, who eschews preconceived notions of what a drug lord should be.” – PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY
 
“Lola Vasquez is back in a stunning sequel to the author’s Edgar-nominated and Debut Dagger–winning Lola (2017), which drew inevitable comparisons to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. But Lola is in no way derivative. She leaps off the pages as a unique character, fully locked and loaded… Many readers may find themselves developing a definite affection for a woman who is essentially a cold-blooded killer.” – BOOKLIST

“A shot in the arm. Melissa Scrivner Love delivers the goods with a pure fix of adrenaline that doesn’t subside until the final page. In Lola we have a character who feels all-too rare in contemporary crime fiction—a protagonist who’s prepared to fight tooth and nail for everything she holds dear, including her own compassion. American Heroin is addictive. A rip-through-it-in-one-sitting thrill ride that will leave readers hooked.”
 —Joseph Knox, internationally bestselling author of Sirens and The Smiling Man
 
“Raw, gritty, and excruciatingly real, Melissa Scrivner Love’s American Heroin features one of the most brutal and conflicted anti-heroines in new crime fiction. Lola Vasquez is a ruthless gang leader and a protective mother, funneling heroin to her South Central Los Angeles neighborhood in order to finance a life for her daughter and mother away from the mayhem she herself inflicts. A can’t-look-away, just-one-more-page thriller, American Heroin opens a window into a pitiless world where loyalty is rewarded and betrayers pay the price.”
 —Karen Dionne, internationally bestselling author of The Marsh King’s Daughter
 
“Melissa Scrivner Love’s latest has an engine that won’t quit and a heroine I couldn’t help but love. Damaged, brilliant, loyal to a fault, Lola lives by her own code, straddling a chasm between motherhood and drug queenpin that runs down the center of her own heart. American Heroin is a white-hot bullet of a book that blasts its way under your skin and stays there—do not miss this ride.”
 —Joshilyn Jackson, New York Times bestselling author of The Almost Sisters
 
“Melissa Scrivner Love has done the near-impossible: She’s made us care deeply about a gang-leading drug dealer, her friends, her enemies, and her world. And done it beautifully. Lola is a marvelous creation; brave but soft, smart but not mistake-proof, unique but completely believable. In short: American Heroin a terrific book.”
 —S. J. Rozan, bestselling author of Absent Friend