The Innocents

This book needs a little more PR somewhere because it only has a few hundred ratings when it should have many more. If you like action/procedurals in small towns, this book will likely satisfy you. First, the main male character is the typical x-military guy who has some emotional issues and is usually quiet. That is a staple in this genre. What is nice here is that the guy is not a super soldier who think through his karate moves and spends hours ruminating over firearms and caliber issues. He is human, like kids, is loyal, but he has a pretty shaky background of family craziness to overcome. This character, Quinn, is likable and not overly cardboard in style as so many characters in these x-military and super soldier novels often are. Main female character is a sharpshooter deputy now sheriff, Lillie. She has quite a mouth on her but it is really funny watching her stand up to the local slugs and derelicts. She is an interesting character. People in town assume she is gay because she can shoot and is tall. Is she? Who knows? How cares? She is funny and smart and has a tender heart, as you see when you find out how she came upon her adopted daughter in an earlier book. The author is good about filling in background, so any one of these first few books can be read first, though going in order makes a hair more sense and keeps things a little straight. Boom, the male character\’s best friend from high school and now former military guy with only one arm thanks to an IED, is a nice addition tool. Quinn and Lillie are white; Boom is black. Boom has a drinking problem but the author does not make his the cardboard black character. Boom is a great guy but the fact he is black and can comment on things as the story goes along makes a new layer of insight. There is lots of race stuff in here. White, Blacks, Mexicans, a Syrian kid etc….. So racial politics is a steady presence here. These books have a collection of realistic, toothless, ignorant, hypocritical, racist as****** that you will not believe. There are many long scenes here where the characters get interviewed at length and we get a peak into their trailers and deadened brains. Some reviewers seem to think there is too much of this. But it is good character development and is done well. I guess the overall pace of this book is a hair slow, but there are lots of factors and any number of people who might have committed the main crime. But if you like character based books with humor, a bit of action here and there, and a good mystery, this is slightly slow pace will be something you enjoy. I think you get to like these people and are happy to hang around with them. Is there action? Yeah. There is a shootout or two but they are not overdone or the main focus of the book. Often guns are drawn but never used. And now and again, one of the eccentric old ladies in town breaks out a shotgun! Some of the characters are pathetic; many are religious hypocrites who love to wave the American flag while the lynch a guy or go to a brothel or beat on their kids. God help us, I see plenty of these types in West Michigan. This is definitely worth the read!!

I\’ve been in a reading rut lately, nothing able to keep my interest. Last five or so books I\’ve read have been blah. This one has broken my losing streak. It\’s the kind of book that makes you look forward to getting in bed at night because you know you get to read it. Atkins\’ character development is among the best, eerily good. You feel like you know these people by the end of his novels. His descriptions are gritty and seedy, and if you\’ve spent any time in rural Mississippi, you know he\’s spot on. The way he develops his characters and describes a place in a way that makes it feel familiar to you remind me of Robert Galbraith\’s (J.K. Rowling) Cormoran Strike novels or Michael Robotham\’s Joseph O\’Loughlin novels. I can tell you this: The man can tell a story.

These yarns keep getting better each time out; I like the low-key characters who are exceedingly well drawn and believable. The yarns themselves are excellent pieces of story telling, well paced and also eminently believable but I must say, Mr Atkins makes the Deep South of the US seem like a place to avoid! 🙂 I suppose I\’ll have to await the next yarn, albeit impatiently and I do like this new \”villain\”; Fannie Hathcock is a great character!!

How have I missed Ace Atkins? How did this master craftsman write 18 crime novels and I never heard of him. As others have said, he\’s as good as Connelly and the other icons of the crime-fiction genre. \”The Innocents\” races along with very well-developed characters and a plot that is solid and full of surprises. Atkins\’ characters spout dialog that is true and screamingly accurate. In short, this is a very good crime novel by a very good writer. And for me, I have 17 more of his books to read. I\’m very much looking forward to it.

The Innocents is another excellent novel in the Quinn Colson series. I\’ve read four of the Colson books and have found all of them to be very good reads. The characters, dialogue, and plotting is exceptional. I also enjoyed the settings. The author, Ace Atkins, is an expert at crafting suspense filled, action mystery thrillers. As a writer of mystery thrillers myself, I\’ve always found Atkins to be among the best in the genre.

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