The Innocents

May 16, 2016
Bestseller Atkins’s disappointing sixth Quinn Colson novel (after 2015’s The Redeemers) lacks the thoughtfulness and excitement of earlier installments. After Quinn served his country for a decade as an Army Ranger, he returned home to Jericho, Miss., to serve as the sheriff of Tibbehah County. When he was voted out of office, Quinn went to Afghanistan, where he helped train the local police force. With that assignment complete, he finds himself at loose ends both professionally and personally back in Jericho. For starters, he has work to do on his relationships with his estranged father, a retired Hollywood stuntman, and his significant other, who’s married to someone else. The pace picks up when Quinn joins his successor as sheriff, Lillie Virgil, in investigating a horrendous crime in which a woman was set on fire. But what develops into an intriguing murder case is weakened by underdeveloped characters who consist mostly of types, such as the creepy football coach and the wholesome cheerleader who becomes a stripper out of desperation. Agent: Esther Newberg, ICM.

May 15, 2016
Even snakes are straighter than many of the denizens of Tibbehah County, Mississippi.Quinn Colson's roots go deep in Tibbehah. The former Army Ranger was sheriff for a while, but cleaning up some of the county's worst sins didn't endear him to many voters. Now that he's returned from training Afghan police officers, his former colleague Sheriff Lillie Virgil has asked him to become a deputy. Quinn is still trying to work things out with his high school sweetheart, who's taken her child and left her husband. Quinn's father, Jason, a former Hollywood stuntman absent for most of his son's childhood, is back with a moneymaking scheme that involves getting into bed with a big-time crook Quinn and the FBI took down (The Redeemers, 2015). Meanwhile, Milly Jones, a former cheerleader desperate to get out of town, takes a job at the newly renovated strip club run by Fannie Hathcock. As soon as she's made enough money, she plans to stiff Fannie for her share and run off, leaving her best friend information she claims will blow the lid off the county and its mealy-mouthed Bible beaters whose heads are eternally stuck in the sand. That plan ends when she's found walking down a road, her body aflame, and dies an excruciating death. Sheriff Virgil suspects Fannie and her enforcers, a bunch of doped-up motorcycle gang members. Among the numerous other suspects are two wild young men Milly was seen with before she died. As Colson and Virgil struggle to make sense of her death, the county they've struggled to clean up continues down the same old road of drug dealing, petty larceny, and criminal stupidity. The rough-and-tumble relationship between two tough-as-nails law officers and the place they love provides plenty of action, well-developed characters, and an ending that will more likely leave you disgusted than surprised.

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February 15, 2016

Back on the job after a yearlong hiatus, Tibbehah County, MS, sheriff Quinn Colson is joined by Deputy Lillie Virgil in investigating a particularly shocking crime: the murder of 17-year-old high school dropout Milly Jones, found burning like a torch on the highway. What's worse, Milly's death appears to be the start of something grim. Lots of library marketing.

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