The Innocents by Ace Atkins

Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons on July 12, 2016

Quinn Colson is back in Tibbehah County, where he was voted out of office as sheriff. After doing some contract police training in Afghanistan, Quinn has returned to keep an eye on his addled dad. Lillie Virgil is the sheriff now. Read The Redeemers if you want to know more about the background, but The Innocents can be appreciated without reading earlier installments in the series.

Since the last novel ended, the local “titty bar” has acquired a new owner. One plot thread begins with an underage pole dancer who wants to acquire enough money to get away from her judgmental father. Another involves current and former high school football players who are in trouble with the law and the beloved coach who is the state’s three-time High School Coach of the Year. Eventually the plot coalesces around a murder mystery that Quinn and Lillie are called upon to solve. The murder is particularly gruesome, but that seems to be the way people die in Tibbehah County.

I love the background details in these novels. Church and high school football are the most important things in town although most people only pretend to care about church. Quinn’s mother loves to listen to Elvis’ last concert just to have a good cry. Sheriffs and other elected officials who actually do their jobs can count on losing the next election.

I also love the realism of Ace Atkins’ characters. From immigrants who feel they are being kicked around (sometimes justly, sometimes not) to rednecks who cling to bigotry as a mark of strong character to well-educated people who are made to feel unwelcome, the background characters represent the mix of people who live in poor southern counties.

The Innocents isn’t particularly suspenseful and the plot isn’t particularly surprising, but the story moves quickly, action scenes are exciting, and (in contrast to most modern thrillers) the story never stretches the boundaries of credibility. I would recommend The Innocents for those reasons alone, but I particularly recommend the series to readers who are looking for complex characters who struggle with their lives as they evolve from book to book.

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