Drug novels continue to be published on a regular basis. One of my favorites, Robert Stone’s Dog Soldiers presented a Vietnam soldier with a brick of cocaine. But, of course, other people wanted it, too. That’s the basic premise behind The Carrion Birds by Urban Waite. Ray Lamar is a professional criminal who’s trying to go straight. But he gets sucked into a drug deal that goes bad. Enforcers from the drug cartel show up and there’s plenty of shooting and dead bodies. Ray Lamar and his injured partner are hunted down. You can probably fill in the blanks. I found nothing surprising about The Carrion Birds. The writing carries the reader along to a predictable place. GRADE: C