The Shameless

May 1, 2019
As if Mississippi's Tibbehah County didn't have enough present-day malfeasance to keep Sheriff Quinn Colson hopping, a cold case brings the customary pot of criminals and misfits to yet another boil. Newly married to Maggie Powers, Quinn would like nothing better than to take a break from his hometown's constant diet of organized and disorganized crime and begin adoption proceedings for Maggie's 8-year-old son, Brandon. Not happening. His attention is demanded by another Brandon, who's suddenly captured the imagination of Thin Air podcast reporter Tashi Coleman and her producer, Jessica Torres. They've made the trip down from New York at the behest of Shaina Taylor, whose brother vanished in the wilderness 21 years ago before turning up shot to death a week later. Brandon Taylor, the cold-case publicity hounds announce, has waited long enough for justice, and they aim to camp out in Tibbehah County, asking awkward questions and bedding the locals, until they've gotten to the truth. Does this mean that franchise villains like Fannie Hathcock, the county's premiere supplier of sweet young female companionship, and the syndicate she's in bed with will wither from neglect? Not a bit, because they're all tied in to Brandon Taylor's long-ago shooting, U.S. Marshal Lillie Virgil's recent arrest of fugitive Wes Taggart, and the race-baiting gubernatorial campaign of state Sen. Jimmy Vardaman. When Taggart, who hints that he knows where the bodies are buried, is shot to death in his cell by a pair of hired killers who manage to infiltrate the jail, his murder raises what ought to be the pivotal question of "why his sorry ole ass was so important to the Syndicate boys." But the furious torrent of crimes past and present and revelations about same keep any one question or plotline from rising above the fray. Like James Lee Burke's Louisiana, Atkins' violent Mississippi idylls seem more and more clearly shaped as installments in an ongoing serial drama, and this one, ending with both a bang and a whimper, seems mainly intended to set up the next.

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May 27, 2019
In bestseller Atkins’s gritty ninth Quinn Colson novel (after 2018’s The Sinners), Colson, the sheriff of Tibbehah County, Miss., is alarmed by the growing popularity of Jimmy Vardaman, a gubernatorial candidate who dismisses accusations of racism as “fake news.” Vardaman has appeared on the fringes of Colson’s corruption investigations, but the sheriff has been unable to get sufficient evidence to bring charges. Colson hopes that will change after he gets custody of Wes Taggart, a lowlife who attempted to kill one of Colson’s friends, who he believes is connected with Vardaman. Meanwhile, Tashi Coleman, the host of a true crime podcast, has arrived in Tibbehah County to look into a 20-year-old mystery—the death of 15-year-old Brandon Taylor. Taylor went missing in the woods, only to be found a week later, dead of a gunshot wound. Tashi has doubts about the rigor of the investigation led by the sheriff at the time, Quinn’s uncle, Hamp Beckett. The suspense rises as the two cases converge. Atkins makes the thrilling plot accessible for first-timers, while further deepening both main and secondary characters. Series fans will be eager to see what’s next in store for Quinn. Author tour. Agent: Esther Newberg, ICM.

Starred review from July 1, 2019

Once again, ranger-turned-sheriff Quinn Colson and a small group of deputies and law enforcement friends battle corruption and crime in northeast Mississippi. A crooked politician, backed by the Syndicate, is running for governor. The mob and their candidate face a challenge from a truck stop madam who has plans to make the state a place for drug trafficking and prostitution. A 20-year-old crime brings everything crashing down when a podcaster comes to town to investigate the old case of a teenager who supposedly committed suicide. Quinn tries to find the old records of the tragedy handled by his uncle, the late former sheriff, but politicians and criminals unite to stop him. Quinn's attempts to fight corruption in Tibbehah could lead to his death. VERDICT The author follows The Sinners with a troubling, violent, plot-driven drama focusing on far-right politics supported by corruption and murder. The result is an intense, open-ended novel that should carry a "To be continued" message. It's no surprise Atkins has continued Robert B. Parker's "Spenser" series. Fans of those books, or of Lee Child's "Jack Reacher" titles, will relish this series featuring another lone hero battling evil. [See Prepub Alert, 1/23/19.] --Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2019

Years ago, teenager Brandon Taylor ambled into the Tibbehah County, MS, woodlands and was never seen again. Now bones presumed to be Brandon's have been discovered, and though fingers are being pointed at Sheriff Quinn Colson's uncle, the corrupt former sheriff, Quinn's wife suspects a conspiracy related to letters she's been receiving from the state penitentiary. From a New York Times best-selling author with escalating sales.

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.