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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The Redeemers by Ace Atkins

Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons on July 21, 2015.

The Redeemers (the fifth entry in the Quinn Colson series) is an intense, character-driven crime novel that features an ensemble redneck cast. Clean shoes are the only thing that separate the rich rednecks from the poor rednecks. Most of them are from Tibbehah County, Mississippi, although a few live in neighboring Alabama. Many are struggling with their lives while rebuilding a county that was torn apart by a tornado. The tornado, however, serves as a symbol for the destruction that the novel's characters have brought upon themselves.

Sheriff Quinn Colson is one of the few exceptions to the redneck mentality that pervades the county. He returned to his home in the pursuit of misplaced love, but he also loves the county ... or at least its natural beauty. Colson has been voted out of office, replaced by a decent but naive guy named Rusty Wise. County Supervisor Johnny Stagg, who owns a truck stop and a strip club and fancies himself the de facto ruler of Tibbehah County, is disappointed that Wise seems to be as incorruptible as Colson. Deputy Lillie Virgil likes Colson and isn't sure whether she wants to work for Wise. Other than unemployment, Colson's problems include a drug addicted sister named Caddy, a formerly estranged but recently resurfacing father, and a messy affair with another man's wife.

Also playing key roles are Mickey Walls, who owns a flooring business, Mickey's third ex-wife, Tonya Cobb, her mother Debbie, and Debbi's husband Larry, who owns the town mill. The relationship between Mickey Walls and Larry Cobb soured after Mickey and Tonya divorced, setting up a large part of the plot.

The story begins with Mickey and his friend Kyle Hazlewood talking about breaking into Larry Cobb's safe. They enlist the help of veteran burglar Peewee Sparks and his apprentice nephew, Chase Clanton (Alabama relatives of Mickey's second ex-wife). All of the characters are created in vivid detail but Peewee and Chase have the reddest necks. Their botched burglary is proof that crime can be funny, but crime can also be deadly, as the novel's second half repeatedly demonstrates.

In fact, The Redeemers is a novel balanced on a fulcrum. The first half is leisurely and amusing. The second half is fast and forceful. Tension builds as the focus moves from dim-witted characters who are good for a laugh to endangered characters Ace Atkins makes the reader care about.

The novel's ending wraps up some threads that earlier novels in the series apparently left dangling. Since this is the first one I've read, that will mean more to readers of the series than it meant to me. I can nevertheless say that The Redeemers worked well for me as a stand-alone novel. This book sets up the next one in Quinn's uncertain future and I look forward to reading it.

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