The Fallen

As always I enjoyed my annual summer trip to Quinn Colson\’s life and imaginary Mississippi town of Jericho. These books usually are about four things: the crime du jour in Tibbehah County, where Quinn\’s county sheriff; deeper local corruption; the ups and downs of his family; and his love life. Corruption: It’s changed flavors, with Colson’s longtime nemesis, strip-joint operator and county commissioner Johnny Stagg now in federal prison. Stagg’s truck stop has been taken over by an out of town madam. Colson is inclined to let things ride (as it were) but gets caught in the middle when a moralistic county commissioner wants to shut her down. And Fannie Hathcock – great madam name, no? – has her own resources: roots deep in the oldtime Dixie Mafia. She’s involved in more disturbing activities, and meanwhile her preachy nemesis is not what he seems, either. Family: Colson’s quintessentially Southern mom Jean and lost-but-now-found-again little sister Caddie are fine, as is Caddie’s son Jason whom Quinn is like a dad to. Caddie runs a mission but her seamy past haunts her. She searches for two teenage girls who passed through her mission but have now disappeared. She fears they’ve been forced into prostitution, and knows what that means for a teenage girl, owing to her own past. Love life: With childhood sweetheart Anna Stevens and funeral home operator Ophelia Bundren both in Quinn’s rearview mirror, he’s ripe for the plucking when Maggie Powers, a girl he’d known in childhood, shows up back in town – her marriage on the rocks, a child in tow. They take it slow but there’s a real attraction there. Then he discovers some major baggage. The criminals du jour are a change of pace. a robbery ring wearing Trump masks that can get in and out of banks in 90 seconds flat. They’re slick, and Colson, watching video of Jericho’s own bank getting hit, recognizes their precision as that of veterans skilled at planning missions and clearing rooms. They’re motivated not by PTSD or financial need, but by wanting to regain combat’s adrenaline rush, which nothing else in civilian life matches. Atkins is onto something here. We coast a bit here as Atkins shifts gears in Colson’s life, and that’s fine. We’ve seen much personal turmoil for our protagonist and his inner circle – Caddie lost to drugs and prostitution, their dad showing up and vanishing again, a tornado, Quinn’s own political struggles finding him in office, out of it and now back in again. We like to see them on an even keel while working to protect their small town. But it’s an endless struggle. Hathcock has a bad-girl charm but in her own way is just as evil as Stagg was. The fate of the two teenage girls, and what they represent, hangs over the whole story. The faint but tangible links between local gentry and organized crime still exist. And Colson’s top deputy, Lillie Vergil, is thinking of moving on. You can coast for a while, but time waits for no one. No spoilers, but as the book ends, new pockets of conflict are created that point to trouble in the future.

The story is very good. The characters well drawn out, complex and dynamic. Atkins creates a setting so well. When I read a novel I ask myself – do I care about the main characters and do I want to know more about them. With Atkins, I always want to know more. The only minor criticism I would have is the use of the description \”big assed.\” If a character refers to a truck as \”big assed\” or a gun as \”big assed\” or a guy as \”big assed\” that\’s one thing. But I don\’t think the writer should use it in the narrative sense. When he uses the term \”big assed\” from the narrator\’s point of view, it suggests that he has either run out of adjectives or has a very limited vocabulary. I don\’t think either is the case with Atkins so I wish he would limit the colloquial \”big assed\” to characters who are speaking in his novels. Also please don\’t take Lillie Virgil out of the story. Love her.

I read this last year and am finally getting around to writing a review. I would say this is more of a review of my thoughts on the series than on this book. I read a lot and love a well written book, but I\’ve got to say that I finally quit reading a similar series which was written by James Lee Burke, the Dave Robicheaux series. The Robicheaux books are so well written and I finally had to stop reading them because they made were making me feel depressed. I couldn\’t put them down even though they completely bummed me out. When I started this Ace Atkins / Quinn Colson series I was afraid the same thing would happen, but so far, so good. Yes the books are very dark, but I feel there are enough tweaks to his style to break up the depressing elements and I really like the books. I think that they give a realistic picture of the South\’s dark underbelly and yet humanize the population of people trapped in it. I really recommend the books to readers.

Quinn Colson in Ace Atkins book \”The Fallen\” is a super hero and a guy who gets the job done by catching the bad guys and gals. He also has women after him, several sexually and several others who impact life. The women in Atkins\’s book are strong, opinionated, and sexy. In fact, Quinn\’s deputy sheriff Lillie is a woman who thrives in the law enforcement world and who would love a relationship beyond the office with Quinn. But it\’s the law breaking women who give him the professional challenges that give the book direction. All characters and plots are well developed and interesting. The book is a fine addition to the series. I would have liked the book even more except that the ending sets up another book by not finishing a couple loose ends. But, I know another book is in the works for which I am thankful.

All-in-all, I LIKED this Quinn Colson novel while I was reading it. Looking back over the story, maybe it is just OKAY. As the Sheriff who is trying to keep law and order in a small Southern county, Quinn\’s character is fine. As a guy who is trying to figure out a love-life:\’\’meh…\” I skimmed and skipped over about one-third of the book (whenever domestic subplots came up.) I was in the book for the \’action\’ and for characters like Fannie Hathcock, the sexy bar/bordello operator, \’Boom\’, Quinn\’s mechanic friend at the county garage, Lillie, Quinn\’s mentor in county law enforcement and the three combat veterans who turn to robbing banks to keep their team together and to keep their lives in focus. At times, I pondered \’\’motivation\”, especially for the madam and her organized crime contacts and the \’take down\’ of the Memphis drug counting house. The continued motif of \’the Seedy South\’ is also a bit troubling since the same crime and corruption happens just as often elsewhere.

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