Sheriff Quinn Colson and his former deputy Lillie Virgil find themselves on opposite sides of a case for the first time after a woman is found dead and three delinquent teens go on the run.
Before he was an Army Ranger who came home to become Tibbehah County Sheriff and take down a corrupt system, Quinn Colson was a kid who got into trouble--a lot of it. So when juvenile delinquent TJ Byrd insists that she doesn’t know who killed her mother—an unreliable addict who has disappeared—Quinn’s inclined to believe her. But no one else does--not the town, not the sheriff in a neighboring county, not her mother’s older boyfriend, and certainly not Quinn’s friend and former deputy, U.S. Marshal Lillie Virgil.
The Byrd family has always been trouble, and sixteen-year-old TJ is known for petty theft, fighting, and general hellraising. She’s also no fool, and when she senses she’s about to take the fall for her mother’s murder, TJ, her boyfriend, her best friend, and her nine-year-old brother go on the run. As Lillie Virgil tracks the kids across a trail of burglaries, stolen cars and even a kidnapping, intent on bringing TJ to justice, Quinn sets out to find the truth back in Tibbehah. Someone has gone to a lot of violent trouble to make TJ and her friends the logical target of the investigation. It’s easy, and who cares about a bunch of lawless kids?
As the bloody evidence against TJ piles up, Quinn knows someone truly evil is at work here--and that puts TJ and her friends in more danger than they can imagine.
The Heathens is the 11th Quinn Colson novel by Ace Atkins. Released 13th July 2021 by Penguin Putnam on their G.P. Putnam's Sons imprint, it's 416 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats.
This is a plainly written gutsy investigative procedural featuring an interesting dual plot following both Quinn Colson's investigation into the murder of a local woman and his ex-deputy's tracking the suspects wanted in the same murder. The writing is, as always, tight and unvarnished and engaging. The author's adept at writing action and equally talented with natural and believable dialogue.
I have enjoyed the other books in the series and recommend them, but this one works pretty well as a standalone. The author has tied up a number of multi-book plot threads in the previous book, so logistically speaking, this is a good place to jump in to the series.
This book will appeal to fans of the Longmire books, as well as Crais' Cole & Pike. This is by no means a derivative work, but it certainly has the same authenticity and realism in the characters, descriptions, and dialogue.
Four stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
