The Heathens by Ace Atkins

Published by ‎ G.P. Putnam's Sons on July 13, 2021

In his usual masterful style, Ace Atkins constructs a story from multiple perspectives, then accelerates the pace in the second half by shifting rapidly among the plot threads, creating the sense of simultaneous action on multiple fronts. He does that without sacrificing characterization. In fact, The Heathens is one of the best installments of the Quinn Colson series, precisely because Atkins develops the personality of a key secondary character in surprising depth while telling an engaging story.

The story’s focus is on a teenage girl named TJ Byrd. TJ has always been a troublemaker, but Atkins makes the reader sympathize with her delinquent nature. There aren’t many roads to a happy life for a girl who needs to raise her younger brother while her mother is making one bad decision after another, typically involving drugs and abusive men. Gina’s latest bad choice is Chester Pratt, who sees Gina (and indirectly TJ) as the solution to his debt problem. Pratt is the last straw for TJ, who takes her little brother and hits the road with her boyfriend, Ladarius McCade, and her best friend, Holly Harkins.

The disreputable sheriff in a neighboring county happens upon a dismembered body that has been soaking in a barrel of bleach. Quinn, the sheriff of Tibbehah County, enlists the help of his former deputy and current US Marshal, Lily Virgil, to identify the remains. As Gina’s lifelong friend, Lily recognizes a tattoo that confirm Gina’s identity as a murder victim.

Since TJ is on the run, she becomes the prime suspect, a suspicion that Pratt does his best to fuel. Quinn isn’t convinced of TJ’s guilt, but Pratt has an alibi. As Quinn conducts his investigation in Tibbehah County, Lily follows TJ’s path into Arkansas and Louisiana. TJ is pretty easy to follow, given the trail of stolen cars and burgled houses she and Ladarius leave in their wake. TJ meets a disgruntled princess named Chastity in one of those houses who turns TJ into an Instagram sensation. Telling your story on Instagram turns out to be a bad way of traveling on the down low.

The series’ recurring villain (the one who is still alive, at any rate) is Johnny Stagg. He plays a role in the unfolding events, but the most villainous characters are a father and son thug team named Daddy and Dusty Flem. Most of Colson’s evil characters are corrupt and violent, but Daddy and Dusty are unthinking and unfeeling monsters. Yet they are just as realistic as more nuanced villains who have bedeviled Quinn in earlier novels.

Quinn’s wife and her son, as well as Quinn's new baby, his mother and his friend Boom Kimbrough play their expected parts, reminding the reader of Quinn’s fundamental decency and the difficult times he has overcome. But the novel’s star is TJ, who fights for her freedom and survival, battles her emotions and forces herself to be brave for her bother’s sake because he has no one else. She’s a strong, sympathetic, but vulnerable character, instantly likeable because she won’t tolerate being abused, even if — as any girl of 16 would — she makes some immature choices along the way.

The reason Gina was killed isn’t necessarily what the reader will expect. There is a bit of a whodunit plot mixed with a fast-moving action story as various characters try to be the first to find TJ — some of whom do not have her best interests at heart. Atkins mixes his characteristic humor into the story with throwaway lines like TJ’s brother’s description of his mother’s death: “She’s up there in heaven with Jesus and Dale Earnhardt.” Atkins continues the noir atmosphere of corruption, degradation, and hypocrisy that he has established throughout the series. All of the novels in this series are good but the effort that Atkins put into TJ makes The Heathens one of his best.

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