Code of the Hills by Chris Offutt

Publlished by Grove Press on June 13, 2023

“The country’s gone to hell since Johnny Cash died,” observes one of the characters in Code of the Hills. His complaint is that chain stores don’t sell baling wire. How that relates to Johnny Cash is something that only hill people understand.

Linda Hardin is a sheriff in Eastern Kentucky. Johnny Boy Tolliver is her deputy.  Linda is investigating the death of Pete Lowe. Pete’s body was found in his home, dead from a bullet to the head. Before he was killed, Pete hid his best fighting rooster with a friend. The friend was living in a chicken coop — a fancy one — for reasons that only a hill person could understand.

Linda’s brother Mick recently returned home after serving his twenty years in the Army. He was a criminal investigator during most of those years. He plans to live in France for a while because he expects to feel out of place wherever he goes so why not France? By virtue of hanging around his sister for a few days, Mick gets sucked into the investigation of Lowe’s murder. While he’s helping Tolliver, the investigation leads him to another body. Almost immediately, a third body turns up and his sister takes a bullet.

Deputized by the deputy who is now the acting sheriff, Mick is uncertain about returning to law enforcement in the civilian world. He identifies a couple of criminals but finds their motives to be righteous and is reluctant to arrest them “for things he’d do himself.” Arresting them would be contrary to the code of the hills. Tolliver eventually confronts a similar choice between following the code and following the law.

Military life left Mick with little discretion. He followed orders and let someone up the chain of command make decisions. Civilian life empowers him to do what’s right. Having responsibility puts Mick in uncomfortable positions that add depth to the story.

Code of the Hills is filled with colorful descriptions of a life that will be unfamiliar to most readers. A woman cuts the testicles out of a boar after urging a bystander to distract the boar by beating it with an axe handle if it comes untied during the operation. I can understand why the boar might become upset at the woman’s decision to save herself a veterinarian’s bill.

The plot isn’t burdened with complexity. For that reason, it moves quickly. Mick doesn’t back away from fights but this isn’t a tough guy novel. He’s a decent guy who is making a transition in life and doing the best he can to find a new direction. He treats people well, even when they might want to kill him. Linda is also likeable. She doesn’t understand why she likes men. “Men were morons who abused women and killed each other.” Maybe she doesn’t like them at all but just gets lonely. Strong characterization and an atmospheric, fast-moving story make Code of the Hills a good beach read for crime novel fans.

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The Killing Hills by Chris Offutt

Published by ‎Grove Press on June 15, 2021

Notable for its sense of place, The Killing Hills takes the reader to Appalachia and to families that hold a grudge for generations. Chris Offutt goes beyond the stereotype of feuding hillbillies to tell an intriguing story of crime and corruption in an insular community.

Mick Hardin is a CID officer. After serving as a paratrooper, Hardin became the Army’s top criminal investigator. He comes home to Kentucky on leave after he learns from his sister that his wife is pregnant. He has always imagined growing old with his wife, “finishing their days side by side on a porch, quietly enjoying the birds, trees and flowers. He wanted to measure time by the growth of trees.” Yet Mick soon learns that his wife had a reason not to tell Mick about the pregnancy. That bit of domestic drama sends Mick into an alcohol-fueled haze and causes him to overstay his leave, making him AWOL.

Mick’s sister Linda is the county sheriff, having been elevated to that position by default. Linda gives Mick a reason to regain his sobriety after Nonnie Johnson is murdered. Linda needs Mick’s skills as a homicide investigator. Since Mick grew up in the community, he knows how to speak to people as a good old boy. Nobody opens up to anyone, but they’re more likely to talk to Mick than they are to answer Linda’s questions.

Mick wants to find the killer before Nonnie’s family takes the law into their own hands. Revenge killings are a local tradition, “an inbred conviction of vengeful purpose.” Unfortunately, the desire for revenge often sparks the killing of innocent suspects. A man who made his money in coal uses his influence to have an FBI agent arrest “the Dopted Boy,” an adopted boy named Tanner who was “personally liked but never accepted. In a culture that elevated blood family above all, the community never trusted Tanner.” Mick decides that the FBI’s arrest of a potentially innocent suspect won’t end his investigation.

Mick is a sympathetic character. He conceals his intelligence because that’s what smart people in the hills need to do. He approaches potential witnesses with patience, always introducing himself as “Nick Hardin’s boy,” talking about family connections to establish his credibility.

The murder has no obvious motive. Nonnie was a well-liked middle-aged woman who didn’t make trouble. Suspects include a heroin source, the source’s local dealer, and a man who searches the hills for ginseng. The mystery’s resolution isn’t flashy or shocking. On a superficial level, The Killing Hills is a murder mystery, but the story is really about the quest for the truth in a tight-lipped community. The truth that Mick discovers is almost secondary to the story of the hills and its population.

A character laments that everywhere else in the country, “folks live a little longer every year.” In the hills, the average life span is getting shorter. “The hills are killing us,” the character says. Violence and poverty, alcohol and drugs, decades of manual labor and poor health care. That’s the noir atmosphere that makes the story special. Coupled with Mick’s personal problems, The Killing Hills is very much a novel of place and characters. That the story is good is a bit of a bonus.

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