Booklist Reviews
Start on page one, and learn right off what a fine writer Atkins can be, as two reprobate country boys cook up a safecracking scheme. Keep reading and watch the main character, Quinn Colson, rescue his kid sister from a crack den. The writing is deceptively plain, an unadorned anti-style, rhythmic and hard to look away from. Read further, and wonder why Atkins has allowed a collection of backwoods dim bulbs to take over his carefully controlled narrative. There is much passing of gas here, and nose picking, and a tiresome fondness for two words: ass and shit. The plot involves Colson's attempt to catch the safecrackers, but some readers might find themselves starting to count the shits. Things improve when the investigation begins, and Atkins again shows what he can do, but we still stumble over an ole boy who describes what he'd like to do with the girl and a can of butter spray. Authenticity? Yes, maybe, but it smells a little bit like . . . well, parody. Still, country-noir connoisseurs aren't known for delicate noses. Copyright 2014 Booklist Reviews.
Library Journal Reviews
Forced from his job as sheriff of Tibbehah County, MS, owing to some ugly maneuvering by county bad guy Johnny Stagg, Quinn Colson is getting ready to wipe Stagg off the map when the local lumber mill owner is robbed and the new sheriff killed during the investigation. Now Quinn has another plan.
[Page 54]. (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.Publishers Weekly Reviews
Bestseller Atkins's weak fifth crime novel featuring Afghan-veteran-turned-lawman Quinn Colson (after 2014's The Forsaken) finds Quinn in his last days as sheriff of Mississippi's Tibbehah County, having lost the last election to a much less competent man. His loyal deputy, Lillie Virgil, accompanies him on a rescue mission to South Memphis, where the judicious use of an ax handle enables Quinn to free his drug-addicted sister, Caddy, from some very bad company. Meanwhile, an inept group of crooks plot revenge on a man who complained about some work one of them did for him by breaking into the safe in his house. Action junkies may lose patience with the book's slow first half, which is replete with Colson family dynamics. Besides trying to get Caddy to become serious about recovery, Quinn must deal with his dysfunctional father. Things pick up in the concluding sections, but the characters lack depth this time out. Agent: Esther Newberg, ICM. (July)
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