The Sinners

One of the high spots of my summer each year is the release of the latest Quinn Colson installment. Atkins has done a fine job constructing his fictional Jericho in impoverished northern Mississippi, and developing his characters over eight novels. Colson is once again sheriff. His longtime best sidekick, Lillie Vergil, has left for the U.S. Marshal service in Memphis. Colson is engaged to ER nurse Maggie Powers, and we readers wait with bated breath to see if our hero will finally tie the knot after various romances have crashed and burned. As usual the book’s crime plot centers on the strip joint at the edge of town – now taken over, with Johnny Stagg in prison, by experienced madam Fannie Hathcock, who has ties to the Gulf Coast mob and runs a classier sort of trashy joint than Stagg did. Hathcock and her bosses, also in the drug trade, are threatened as suppliers to Memphis by the very good homegrown pot produced by two redneck brothers, the Pritchards, in secret hydroponic tunnels to elude law enforcement. Their real enthusiasm is auto racing, and they’ve managed to avoid trouble until now. But their violent uncle, Heath Pritchard released from a long prison stretch, tries to insert himself into what he thinks of as the family business – seriously rocking various boats. Hathcock must call back her onetime enforcers, the Born Losers motorcycle gang, to go against the Pritchards. This story more prominently features Colson’s pal Boom Kimbrough, who has quit his county job as a mechanic to become a truck driver, only to find his employers are crooked. We wonder if romance will bloom between him and federal agent Nat Wilkins, who convinces him to become a confidential informant. One thing that makes these books eminently readable is Atkins’ variety in characterizing his criminals. I’m glad as a reader that Johnny Stagg is finally in prison; Colson had seemed to be in a longterm stalemate with him. Fannie Hathcock (great name for a madam, by the way) is great company in a weird way – a sexy and smart lowlife – as she runs her fiefdom and attempts to keep distant overlords at bay. Heath Pritchard is so trashy – dirty, violent, vulgar, racist – you want to take a shower after any chapter he’s been in. His nephews, on the other hand, are less offensive. Yes, they’re redneck slobs whom we are unlikely to invite over for tea. But as they were abandoned by their mother and more or less raised themselves, we may forgive them some of that, and they’re not violent, thieving or essentially hateful. They seek excellence in their own worlds of auto racing and pot growing, and if they take joy at the young lovelies who jiggle under Lucas Oil t-shirts at auto races, is there really any harm in that? Fannie’s suave occasional lover Ray, her mentor and link to Gulf Coast crime boss Buster White, is a different type entirely. Atkins dedicates the book to Burt Reynolds, to whom Colson drops several references, now as much a Reynolds fan as his mother is one of Elvis. Atkins may be thinking of Reynolds for the role of Ray should this ever become a film. I’m mulling what the book’s title, “The Sinners”, means. Atkins weaves religion gently into this one. It’s never front and center, as it was a few stories back when Caddy Colson got involved with a parolee turned storefront preacher. But it’s ever present in the background. (The previous one was “The Fallen”; maybe there’s some extended religious metaphor going on here.) Hathcock’s go-fer Ordeen Davis has fallen away from the church. Boom encourages him to return to it. Ordeen’s mother is a preacher. Boom’s father underwent a religious conversion. Cody Pritchard is upset when Heath dives into takeout fried chicken without saying grace. Colson mulls his own relationship with church as his wedding approaches, and compares the differences between, say, Caddy’s edge-of-town charity mission and more mainstream (and snooty) churches. I’m not sure who “The Sinners” in this book ultimately are; there are a lot of them.

U.S. Highway 78 is a divided highway going east and west through Mississippi. It passes through Tupelo and the view is grand. One could leave the highway and find themselves in the fictional county of Tibbehah where Quinn Colson is the sheriff. Quinn is a former army ranger with multiple tours in the Middle East. He runs a tight ship in his county, yet there is no shortage of bad guys & bad ladies, and criminals whose necks are red. Heath Pritchard is back home after serving 23 years in prison for drug running. His two nephews Cody and Tyler were little guys when their uncle went to the pen. They are not pleased that he is back and claiming back his land, house, barn and weed, which the boys have turned into a profitable business, when they aren’t racing in weekend races for money. They discover quickly that their uncle is both a pig and bad-to-the-bone. The Pritchards are competing in the drug business against a coastal syndicate who is bringing drugs in from Mexico. The local operator of a T & A bar is a distributor, but it is questionable to whom her allegiance is with. To make it worst, a syndicate trucking firm moves into Tibbehah county and is involved in moving drugs and stolen goods, thus bringing in more bad guys. Yes, Sheriff Colson is one busy man in this the 8th Quinn Colson novel by author Ace Atkins. “The Sinners” which was recently released was slow moving at first before going into high gear excitement. At times it was difficult keeping all the bad guys ranked in order of power. With a flourish of R-rated language, one realizes this is an area of the South, that perhaps is too real, or maybe not. Still, this was a fun read as all Ace Atkins books have been.

Ace Atkins has had his own following for a long time, and when he agreed to be the new author of the legendary \”Spenser\” detective series after the death of creator Robert Parker, he subsequently introduced himself to a sizable new audience. It was a great choice for the Parker estate because Atkins is one of America\’s premiere novelists. While I must recommend those first checking out his series surrounding Quinn Colson, the sheriff and Afghanistan war veteran of the incredibly corrupt Tibbehah County of Mississippi to start at the beginning, this review is more for the followers of the series as the characters for the most part have long been established. Let\’s put it this way to new readers: Atkins\’ view of rural northern Mississippi is a much more devious corrupt place, especially the town of Jericho, with a large assortment of truly seedy characters with various agendas all getting into every matter of hell, sometimes with the law, other times crossing each others\’ paths and the results of such chance encounters usually ending up pretty bad. What makes Atkins\’ work shine is the way he narrates the story, usually in a somewhat first person style, the character being focused supplying the details in their own way, from drunk racist redneck auto racers to the \”Dixie Mafia\” and to Colson himself, almost reading at times like the story being told simultaneously by several people without losing its narrative and descriptive portions along the way. For those looking for a more home spun style like Grisham\’s fine works that focus on his version of Mississippi, they will be disappointed. Atkins\’ world is much more vicious, dangerous and tragic. Nonetheless, \”The Sinners\” moves at lightning speed as a couple of pathetic pot growers get in way over their idiot skulls with some very unsavory types and create a monstrous situation in the process. Atkins also has specialized in historical novels, done very carefully and accurately, and reveals a love of blues and the blues culture of past and present with some series based in New Orleans. He is a great author, very very intelligent and again, the Quinn Colson series are as good if not better than any other series style novels available. Easily on par with \”Spenser\”, no small feat.

I love the Quinn Colson series. The books are so well written and authentic that I lose myself in them. I can\’t stop reading each new story until it is finished. The characterizations are so detailed and real and the dialogue is sharp and clever. If you are a fan of Elmore Leonard or C. J. Box you will love these books. If you are simply a fan of highly entertaining fiction this series is a must read.

The Sinners is beautifully written, a gripping thrilling adventure with all the characters I have loved (and loathed) from the previous books. You feel like you are part of the small town, you desperately want Quinn to get the happiness he deserves, and you desperately do not want him to get killed trying to sort out the complex problems the town faces. Totally recommend (stand alone or treat yourself and read the others first)

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