King of Ashes

“He moved through their world like a dolphin gliding through water playing savior for a lost sailor, but Roman knew what those tattoos stood for, and knew Khalil wasn’t a dolphin. He was a shark.”

The mercenary is compared to both “a dolphin gliding through water playing savior for a lost sailor” and a shark. This juxtaposition aligns with how Khalil is helpful to his clients and his friends but deadly to his targets. The metaphor comparing Khalil to a shark fosters a foreboding tone and foreshadows the mercenary’s importance as a key weapon in Roman’s arsenal throughout his conflict with the novel’s antagonists.

“But there was a place in his mind, between the shadows of his desire and the sunset of his self-loathing where time slowed and the real world fell away, where the safe word didn’t work. Where Miss Delicate ignored his protestations. Where he was given what he craved in the deepest, darkest caverns of his heart. Penance. Punishment. Absolution.”

Metaphorical language lays out the intricacies of Roman’s psyche as if painting a landscape. These metaphors invoke images of darkness and secrecy to capture Roman’s dark, hidden feelings, such as “the shadows of his desire,” “the sunset of his self-loathing,” and the “caverns of his heart.” The switch to one-word fragments at the end of the passage adds emphasis to Roman’s secret longing for “Penance. Punishment. Absolution.” These desires help to establish the theme of The Relentless Cycle of Guilt and Punishment as a key influence on the protagonist’s characterization.

“The fluorescent lights in the room were low and emitted a bluish hue. They gave the room a submerged appearance, as if they were all underwater. […] Roman went to the bedside and gently grabbed his daddy’s hand. He felt the scars there, the burned places, the nicks and divots. Hands that told a story of determination and setbacks. Of success and sorrow.”

The passage’s detailed visual and tactile imagery conveys Roman’s shock and sorrow the first time he sees his father in the hospital. The simile about how the “bluish hue” of the lighting makes Roman and his family look “as if they were all underwater” underscores how surreal the situation feels to the protagonist. The alliteration in the phrase “[o]f success and sorrow” gives the passage a solemn, poetic tone while summing up how Keith Carruthers’s life has been marked by both great professional achievements and overwhelming personal tragedy.

“Dante’s simple declarations cut to the quick of what they had all lost that day. They had lost a mother, their father had lost a wife, but more than that, they’d all lost a guiding light. A beacon in the darkness that showed them the way home. A beacon that was also a fire that warmed them and made them feel safe in the way that only a mother’s arms can.”

Throughout the novel, the author frequently uses darkness to represent the sorrow and trauma that afflict the Carruthers siblings after the loss of their mother. Metaphors comparing Bonita to “a guiding light,” a “beacon in the darkness,” and “a fire that warmed them and made them feel safe” express the central role that she played in her family’s lives and emotional well-being. The repetition of the word “lost” adds to the passage’s mournful tone.

“You too soft and pretty to talk slick out your mouth, you know that? Too many places on your face to get fucked up. You like a stained-glass window. All bright and colorful and shit, but ain’t really no use to nobody. A church catches on fire, you have to break that window to make it useful.”

Torrent threatens and insults Roman by using a simile to liken him to a stained-glass window; the gang leader says that the handsome finance expert is “[a]ll bright and colorful and shit, but ain’t really no use to nobody.” The comparison to a fragile window emphasizes Roman’s vulnerability. This scene makes it clear that the rules of Roman’s safe and affluent life in Atlanta don’t apply in the violent, corrupt city of Jefferson Run.

“They didn’t speak on their way to the crematory. Roman drove Dante’s Challenger through the cracked streets of Jefferson Run with the grim determination of an executioner making his way to the gallows. He tried to mentally prepare himself for what was waiting for him and Dante at the shop. Some enemy of the Black Baron Boys wrapped in a blood-soaked sheet. Some mother’s son, some father’s child, who would never see another sunrise or breathe the fresh air that seemed so unique to the Old Dominion. ‘Everything burns,’ Roman murmured.”

Cosby uses diction to convey Jefferson Run’s economic decline and violence through details like “cracked streets” and a “blood-soaked sheet.” These details advance the theme of The Socioeconomics of Moral Decay because organized crime proliferates as the city’s economy declines. Keith’s business motto, “Everything burns,” reflects the novel’s nihilistic view of human nature, and it also offers Roman a measure of comfort in the face of his immoral deeds by assuring him that nothing lasts forever.

“Remember what Pops said when he taught us how to play chess? The king is the most important piece in the game. We move the pawns around the board until they take the king out for us. Then we flip the board over and get rid of the pawns too.”

The extended metaphor of a chess game explains Roman’s plan to take down the Black Baron Boys from the inside. The metaphor supports the protagonist’s characterization as a shrewd strategist and morally ambiguous figure willing to resort to subterfuge and manipulation to achieve his goals. Roman’s declaration that he will “move the pawns around the board until they take the king out” for him foreshadows the novel’s climax, in which the members of the Black Baron Boys kill Torrent and Tranquil on Roman’s orders.

“One of his favorite movies was Glengarry Glen Ross. Al Pacino as Ricky Roma was the fast-talking, confidence-inspiring Lower East Side physical avatar of every great salesman he knew inspired him, but it was Alec Baldwin’s Blake who was whispering over his shoulder when he entered boardrooms or private dens or sat down next to an Olympic-sized infinity pool with a man or woman who had never known want or wistfulness. ‘Always be closing.’”

The allusion to Glengarry Glen Ross supports the novel’s genre and the protagonist’s characterization. Like King of Ashes, the 1992 drama contains elements of thriller and crime fiction. The film’s characters engage in highly unethical business strategies in a cutthroat struggle for success, reflecting how Roman defeats Torrent and Tranquil primarily through his business expertise. The mention of Alec Baldwin’s character “whispering over [Roman’s] shoulder” hints at the protagonist’s capacity for ruthlessness, a trait that becomes more prominent as the story unfolds.

“And then the Komodo dragon would begin to eat its prey. Alive. That wasn’t the part that had creeped Roman out, though. It was the ancient dead eyes of the dragon, as it followed its prey like a reptilian Javert, that got under his skin. Eyes that stared into the abyss and never blinked. Do my eyes look like that, Torrent? Do you know I’m going to bite you and watch you fucking rot until I eat you alive? Roman thought.”

The extended metaphor comparing Roman to a Komodo dragon expresses his grim resolve to destroy Torrent and Tranquil. Javert is the police inspector who pursues Jean Valjean, the protagonist of Victor Hugo’s 1862 novel Les Misérables. This allusion underscores Roman’s relentless determination to defeat his enemies. The comparisons of Roman to a famous fictional villain and a Komodo dragon with “dead eyes” highlight that Roman’s pursuit of vengeance is changing him for the worse.

“The service road wasn’t open to through traffic. It was mainly used by the railroad mechanics and maintenance crews. It was also a well-known hookup location. At night it was as dark as a politician’s soul.”

In this passage, Cosby captures not only the physical description of the place where Bonita’s abandoned car was found but also the heavy emotions associated with the location. The simile “as dark as a politician’s soul” fits with the book’s cynical view of humanity and examination of moral corruption.

“BonitaBonitaBonitaBonita. She walked back to her truck, got in, and closed the door. She turned on the radio and found a rock station on the XM and turned the volume up to the last number. She grabbed her steering wheel and, as loud as she could, she screamed. She screamed and screamed, bracing her feet against the floor and pushing her head back into the headrest. Screamed until her throat ached.”

The author uses repetition to convey Neveah’s thoughts and overwhelming emotions. The repetition of Bonita’s name expresses how her daughter is constantly thinking about her and her mysterious fate, and the repetition of the verb “screamed” underlines her unbearable grief for her mother and her unrelenting fury toward her father.

‘“The service and loyalty I owe, in doing it, pays itself,’ Khalil said. ‘Macbeth.’”

Cosby offers clues about Roman’s character arc by alluding to one of Shakespeare’s most famous tragedies. Macbeth is about a once highly respected man who murders his king and goes on a downward spiral into infamy. This foreshadows how Roman descends further and further into a life of crime until he eventually replaces Torrent and Tranquil as the new leader of the Black Baron Boys.

“Roman came to the end of the dirt road and saw a massive three-story house backlit by a three-quarter moon rising up out of the darkness like some eldritch god.”

The author creates an eerie mood in his descriptions of the notorious farm where the gang leaders commit some of their grisliest murders. The simile comparing the moon to “some eldritch god” aligns with the main character’s grim worldview; Roman doesn’t believe in a merciful deity but rather thinks that any higher power must regard humanity with malice.

“After he signed the contract, Handler had cried, much the same way Dante had all those years ago. They’d left Handler there, naked and bruised and bleeding, with half the company his father had built from nothing. Just like Keith Carruthers had done.”

Polysyndeton is the stylistic addition of coordinating conjunctions where none are grammatically necessary. In this excerpt, the technique emphasizes Mike Handler’s pitiable state—“naked and bruised and bleeding.” By comparing the tortured man to Roman’s younger brother and Handler’s father to Keith, the author emphasizes how Roman’s actions weigh on his conscience, even though his loyalty to his family members outweighs everything else.

“The city hall of Jefferson Run was a ruined castle. It had been built by the Brighton family, the former Mason jar scions, as their main residence. When they closed the plant, the family moved en masse to New York City to live off their investments while the city choked on its newfound poverty.”

The author compares the city hall building to “a ruined castle,” a metaphor brimming with decayed opulence, much like the once-prosperous city of Jefferson Run itself. This passage also contains an example of personification, a literary technique that attributes human emotions and qualities to non-human subjects. By depicting the city as someone choking, Cosby underlines how the callous indifference of the wealthy creates suffering for others, a pattern that repeats throughout the book.

“Fate is like a train roaring down the track. There are times you can beat that train and there are times that train plows right through you. If Khalil was that train for some of Torrent’s men, well, he wasn’t going to lose any sleep over it. They sure as hell didn’t lose any thinking about his father.”

The author uses trains as a simile for fate and as a metaphor for Khalil to express how both destiny and the mercenary pursue their ends with deadly force. These comparisons develop the theme of the relentless cycle of guilt and punishment. Trains are an especially potent metaphor for Roman to choose because his mother’s car was found near train tracks after she disappeared, and his father was struck by a train.

“‘Roman, would you hurt her? You wouldn’t do that, would you?’ Dante said, and a sliver of ice slid through Roman’s heart. Dante sounded as fragile as spun glass.”

The metaphorical “sliver of ice [that] slid through Roman’s heart” represents the guilt and pain that the main character feels because his younger brother believes that he’s capable of hurting Cassidy. The simile that describes Dante as “fragile as spun glass” underscores his emotional fragility. This vulnerability both prompts and is deepened by Roman’s lifelong efforts to protect Dante, efforts that enmesh the brothers in the gang’s activities and ultimately lead to Cassidy’s murder.

“If her daddy did kill her mama, the closest he was ever going to get to paying for it was lying in that hospital not being able to move or speak until he died. The police weren’t going to arrest him, her brothers refused to believe it. She was like Don Quixote tilting at a long-forgotten windmill.”

Cosby alludes to Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra’s famous 17th-century novel, Don Quixote, when he compares Neveah to “Don Quixote tilting at a long-forgotten windmill.” Although the Spanish novel is a comedy, this reference implies that there’s something tragic, even delusional, about Neveah’s quest to secure justice for Bonita. Bearing this out, Neveah ultimately murders her father because she convinced herself that he killed his wife, only to later discover his innocence.

“She didn’t get it. This world they were in now, where committing murder was as commonplace as putting on a pair of shoes, where violence came down on you like sleet and hail and thunder all at the same time, where he and his brother had killed to protect themselves and now they might all die because Cassidy didn’t seem to possess the instinct of self-preservation, this world was above her.”

Anaphora refers to the repetition of a word at the start of consecutive phrases or sentences. In this passage, the repetition of the word “where” emphasizes the brutal reality of life in Jefferson Run, a reality that Cassidy fails to comprehend. Additionally, the simile that “murder was as commonplace as putting on a pair of shoes” is horrifying in its banality. This juxtaposition of violent crime with the ordinary activities of everyday life is often seen throughout the novel. Cosby combines a simile with polysyndeton for emphasis when he likens violence to the sudden strike of “sleet and hail and thunder.” Most of the passage consists of a single run-on sentence, and this structural decision gives the passage a frenzied tone that reflects how Dante feels as though he has completely lost control of the situation with Cassidy.

“There were times after his mother vanished that he didn’t know if he deserved love. He had dived into a life of casual connections or professional companionship because the idea that he was worthy of love was a notion that was slipping through his fingers as the years flew by like sand sifting through a sieve. Bit by bit, grain of sand by grain of sand, it had waned from his soul.”

Cosby advances the protagonist’s characterization and the theme of guilt by using a simile to compare Roman’s eroding certainty that he “deserved love” to “sand sifting through a sieve.” The repetition of “Bit by bit, grain of sand by grain of sand” emphasizes Roman’s gradual descent into self-loathing. The author’s choice of literary techniques helps to convey how important Jae is to Roman and how she helps him begin to heal after decades of grief, trauma, and guilt.

“Roman lowered his head. The concrete dust that covered the floor reminded him of ashes. Cold ashes that were sapped of their warmth. Ashes as cold as the grave. ‘She has to go. One way or the other,’ Roman said.”

The author enhances the scene’s suspense and ominous tone through the simile describing “[a]shes as cold as the grave.” The reference to ashes also invokes the novel’s title, signaling that Roman’s decision to have Cassidy killed is a key moment in his transformation into the infamous King of Ashes.

“They go to her then and try to awaken her, pulling on her body, smothering her face with kisses. Pleading with her, with God, with anyone for her to get up, to please get up, Mommy please get up! They stay there until it’s dark. Until their father returns. They see him cry silently, tears like cut glass rolling down his cheeks.”

The repetition of the phrase “please get up” adds to the scene’s grief and desolation. The simile comparing Keith’s tears to “cut glass” emphasizes his terrible pain as he sees his wife’s body.

“‘Neveah, where are you going? Please, where are you going? Neveah! We are all we got. We’re all that’s left. Where are you going? Please, we’re all we got!’ Roman said.

Neveah stopped. She turned to face him. ‘Then we have nothing. I have nothing. We are nothing,’ Neveah said.”

The repetition of Roman’s questions and pleas conveys his desperation not to lose the only family he has left. Neveah’s repetition of the word “nothing” emphasizes that her and Roman’s relationship has been broken by the revelation that each of the siblings had a hand in the death of one of their parents. With the dissolution of the bonds of familial loyalty between the last two surviving Carruthers, the tragedy is nearly complete.