King of Ashes is the darkest and most violent of Cosby’s books. I cannot imagine living in the type of environment that Roman and his siblings find themselves in. But Cosby describes it so vividly that you literally feel the anger, the fear, the anguish, and the grief that the Carruthers have gone through for most of their lives. I did not understand at first why Roman did the things he did to help his brother, but family is everything as you will soon come to realize.