Quinn Colson, the bold, ethical, and driven sheriff of Tibbehah County, Mississippi, is the worthy protagonist in a well-received eleven-book series by Ace Atkins. In the newest in the series, The Heathens (Putman 2021), a petite seventeen-year-old female, TJ Byrd, and her charming, thieving boyfriend, Ladarius, steal the show. As an ex-Army Ranger turned sheriff, Colson is tough, priding himself as someone who even without sleep is “able to keep moving while living off good cigars and black coffee.” But he doesn’t have anything over Tanya Jane when it comes to emotional toughness.

TJ is “five feet tall, skin as white as a china plate, and eyes that folks said reminded them of a Siberian husky.” She is her nine-year-old brother’s de facto mother. Their own mother, Gina Byrd, long ago opted for a wild party life filled with drugs, booze, and a cadre of rapidly rotating violent men, leaving her two kids more or less on their own. Often TJ must steal to eat, so from the get-go of the novel, she is a sympathetic yet wayward young woman.

Ladarius is a black kid, so fundamentally good-hearted and charming even the law enforcement officer—Deputy U.S. Marshall Lillie Virgil—likes him and offers help to him. Prior to the start of the novel, both TJ and Ladarius had a “come to Jesus” summer and gave up their hell-raising and thieving. But when both are suspected of killing TJ’s mom in a truly horrific manner, they don’t wait around to be arrested or worse—they run. Taking TJ’s brother and best friend Holly, with them only compounds their dire situation. Holly, a kid more at home in church than on the run, proves her loyalty by stealing her mother’s minivan for the gang’s escape.

Ladarius and TJ have a true and deep—and essentially non-sexual—relationship. Having each other’s back is a major part of it. Atkins captures them both quite well in this single paragraph:

TJ knew that if things got real rough, no one was better for a little smash and grab at a house or a fancy car along the way [than Ladarius], maybe trading up from that old minivan for something that the police wouldn’t recognize. Even though she and Ladarius were as different as different could be, a hard-ass redneck and smooth black kid from down in Sugar Ditch, they were survivors. If they had to steal, the Lord would most certainly understand.

The odds are stacked against TJ and Ladarius. They are being pursued by the U.S. marshals and two sheriffs—one being Colson and the other being a corrupt sheriff from the adjoining county—and a diverse group of villains and killers. Colson and the Marshalls want to bring the kids back alive, but everyone else on their trail has a motive to see them dead. TJ and Ladarius have no money and no plans. Further complicating their situation, they are saddled with John Wesley, who as a child has little to offer by way of help other than steadfast devotion. Holly is not cut out to be a fugitive, and her fears only drag them down.

In this quagmire, only Sheriff Quinn Colson questions whether TJ and Ladarius are guilty. Though he found damning evidence they—or at least TJ—killed Gina, he knows the girl from past dealings and does not believe her capable of killing her mother. Acting on this gut instinct, Colson sets out to find the truth, giving the story its gloss of police procedural as Colson digs through the history leading up to Gina’s death.

Atkins structures the novel effectively—starting with the kids five days into their running away, as they wait for Ladarius to steal a car so they can continue their desperate flight. Next, the novel backs up to when Gina first went missing, and then proceeds in chronological order until it connects with the point where the book starts. From there, it builds toward its climax. This technique allows for more mystery and suspense, as well as rapid-fire pacing.

By opening with the kids already in deep trouble, suspense exists from the first page. In truth, it wouldn’t be a Quinn Colson novel without that suspense, and its companion—violence. In that regard Atkins does not disappoint. TJ’s mom Gina was not just killed but dismembered and stuffed in a large barrel filled with bleach.

Yet, while Atkins does not shy from violence, his books do not depend upon suspense and action for their validity. Atkins knows exactly how to convey a scene, and he excels in crafting complex and beguiling characters. This book, like others in the series, hums with an authentic sense of time and place, and a certain palpable longing for something long gone or maybe never there to begin with.

Though Atkins’s main characters in The Heathens might be wounded by their lives, they persevere and transcend, lending themselves to a compelling, richly drawn story, where the gore is offset by strong themes of family, friendships, and loyalty. Once more, Ace Atkins shines as an author who can bring home the goods in a riveting story that owes as much to the people he creates as to the actions they take. ( )

Rednecks meet social media, social media wins. This one has lots of our favorite evils; aside from social media, we get lots of that good ol' boy religion (at least they think they're religious) and as usual some far-right crazies who think the KKK had the right idea, but perhaps a bit too tame.

We've got our old friend Johnny Stagg in the middle of most of the trouble, usually either causing it or fanning the flames. I guess he'll always be around. There's a father-son team of semi-dwarf roofers that are about as low as any human can get and still be classified as human, so of course they end up working with Stagg.

Lillie Virgil, a colorful favorite, plays a big part even though she no longer officially works with Quinn. And lots of kids play a big part and are the main subjects of the story - good kids who learned from bad parents, and have no adults they can trust, so of course they get into big trouble.

The closer I got to the end, the harder it was to stop. The story was barrelling downhill faster and faster, and I felt caught up in it, until it seemed like we were all going to crash big.
( )

The Quinn Colson books are a deep, dark look at today's South as it continues to wrestle with the past and the present colliding. In this outing, a teenage girl and her younger brother go on the run after it appears she and her mother argued one time too many. But is she the reason her mother is missing? ( )

For nearly a decade I've been waiting for Ace Archer to write the Quinn Colson novel I know he has in him. Sadly, once again this one isn't it.

It's not that he hasn't developed a quality protagonist. Colson holds his own with the Davenports and Boschs of the world.

It's not that he hasn't created a formidable supporting cast. He's brought to life a cast of Missippeans that rival anything in print. Though it must be pointed out that now federal marshall, but former Tibadoh sheriff Lilly Virgill continually becomes less and less believable and more of a caricature than a character.

It's not that he writes lazy plots. Each book brings a fresh tale of greed and opportunity.

In the end, it's the dialog that continually sinks his ship. It just rings of inauthenticity. It's like he grew up with the type of people that he writes about but has spent his life distancing himself from them. As a result, he writes from what feels like a distorted memory instead of actuality.

The dialog is so bad that it serves as a frying pan delivering a blow to the face every time the reader starts to lose themselves in the compelling story.

Oh well, next year will bring another Colson novel, and once again I will be holding out hope. One day that hope will be filled. ( )

Tanya Jane Byrd, known to her friends as TJ, never gave a damn about being famous. But here she was, four days on the run from Tibbehah County, Mississippi, with that girl Chastity passing along che burner phone to show they now had more than a hundred thou sand followers on Instagram. They only had six posts, the newest one from just two hours ago after TJ cut her hair boy short, dyed it black as a raven’s wing, and made her ultimatum to that cowardly son of 2 bitch Chester Pratt. She called him out for not only her mother’s murder but the money she and her little brother John Wesley were owed.

On the forty-five-second clip shot outside the Tri-State Motel in Texarkana, she held up her fist on the diving board to an empty pool and said, “Fair is fair,” remembering the line from one of her mothers old VHS tapes in the trailer.

“What do you think?” Chastity asked.

"I think I better drop that phone into the nearest creek."

WHAT'S THE HEATHENS ABOUT?
Seventeen-year-old TJ Byrd has spent her life convinced that her father was killed by Tibbehah County's Sherriff, the uncle of the current Sherriff. This has left her with a pretty jaded view of law enforcement. So when she's suspected in the disappearance—and then the murder of her mother, it's understandable that she doesn't assume she's going to get a fair shake from those that suspect her. So, she grabs her little brother and with her best friend and her boyfriend, they hit the road and run. They're not sure where they're driving to, but it's far away from Tibbehah.

That's maybe not the brightest move, but she's desperate.

Former Deputy/now US Marshall, Lilly Virgil assumes that TJ killed her mother. Lilly has seen what happens when the two of them fight and assumes that TJ has gone one step too far. Lilly pulls some strings and gets herself assigned to the fugitive hunt for TJ and the rest.

Sheriff Quinn Colson isn't that convinced of TJ's guilt but would like to talk to her about what happened. With her on the run, he does some legwork on the case on his own—looking into her mother's boyfriend, finances, and history. The more he finds, the less he's convinced that TJ had anything to do with her death, he just needs to find enough evidence to convince Lilly.

Meanwhile, Johnny Stagg is at work greasing palms and making plans for the future—and what he has in mind will look entirely different than anything we've already seen from him. He's also trying to get a father and son to join his team—they have a penchant for violence, and Stagg is pretty sure he'll have some work for them.

TJ BYRD

...I'm real sorry, TJ. You're too young to got through a mess like this."

"My life's been a mess since I was born," TJ said. "Don't shed a tear for me, Sheriff."

TJ Byrd is one of those characters that you can sense that an author really enjoys writing, and it carries over to the reader—she's just a blast to read about. I felt like I got a better sense of her than I have a couple of protagonists this year. I want to write a lot about her, but I won't because I just don't want to take away the joy of discovery from a reader. So let me just say that if you can see the joy in reading about a rebellious, stubborn, delinquent teenager on the run from the law because she's suspected of the gruesome murder of her mother, you're really going to have fun with her. If that kind of character doesn't really seem like something you'd enjoy—give Atkins a chance to prove you wrong.

The only thing I do feel safe in saying is that Atkins made a great Spotify playlist based on the character, and it tells you a lot about her (and makes pretty good reading/writing music if you're dragging a bit).

A NEW SIDE OF COLSON?

The little girl wide awake now, as Maggie wiped her face with a napkin and handed her over to Quinn. He held his daughter tight, the child's eyes wide and unfocused. Halley so small, light in his lap, while she checked out all the smells and sounds of the Fillin' Station diner.

"She sure is curious," Maggie said.

"Skeptical," Quinn said.

"I guess she comes by it naturally."

Quinn's been a great step-dad to Brandon—and was a good uncle to Jason. But it feels different now with Halley in the picture. It seems like Quinn's going to be a good, involved dad (as much as his job allows). I got a real Joe Pickett-vibe off of a couple of passages with Quinn at home in this one. Which is good—Joe at home is the most appealing part of the character, so seeing Quinn in this light makes me look forward to seeing how he develops along these lines.

MYTHOLOGY VS. "MONSTER OF THE WEEK
It's a little off-genre here, but when I was thinking about this novel and its relation to the rest of the series, I thought about The X-Files and Fringe. There were essentially two types of episodes for those series—"Mythology" episodes that advanced or at least explored the overarching story about the series, and "monster of the week" episodes that were pretty much about some freakish thing that was taken care of within one episode—and while nods might have been made towards the mythology, overall it was independent of that story.

The Heathens follows a major mythology novel, The Revelators that tied up storylines that went back to the beginning as well as some new ones. The Heathens takes a break from it, telling a largely stand-alone story. This is good, it gives readers a chance to catch their breath, it gives Atkins a chance to tell a different kind of story while beginning to set the stage for the next big mythology chapter.

That said, it's not "mythology"-free. The "new, improved" Johnny Stagg (who will remind you a lot of the "old, corrupt" Johnny Stagg) starts making plans, giving readers a hint about the kind of misery that's heading to Tibbehah County and Quinn's life. And there are references to and advances on some of the ongoing subplots, but they're not the focus of the novel.

EDGING TOWARD A SPOILER IN THE PARAGRAPH
I don't like to think this—even about fictional characters—but there's a character death that brought me just so much pleasure. I'm not going to ruin it, as much as I want to. Murdered Character is someone I find nothing redeemable about—Stagg, at least, is entertaining to read about/detest. But this one? Didn't enjoy reading about them, was hoping never to see them again—but if Atkins is going to bring them back just so he can kill them off? That's more than okay by me.

SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT THE HEATHENS?
This is a great way to start phase 2 of the Quinn Colson series, taking a little breather from major arcs to focus on this story—one that Quinn and Lilly really play supporting roles in—is a nice break from the intensity of the last couple of novels.

It's also a great place to come on board the series if you haven't read any of it before.

Lilly and Quinn being on opposite sides of the case—not really working against each other but sure not helping each other too obviously—is another nice touch. There's an honest difference of opinion, and on the whole, they treat each other like adults set out to get to the bottom of something, no matter their divergent positions when it comes to how to deal with TJ.

Especially in the Quinn Colson series, Atkins has a history of giving us solid plots, great characters, and something extra. That's the same here, but it feels a little fresher, a little rejuvenated after The Heathens. Choosing to focus on a few kids from Tibbehah County, while Lilly and Quinn are closing in on the truth (and the teens) is a nice change of pace, too.

As much as I enjoy his Spenser novels, it's these Quinn Colson books where Atkins can show the world what he's capable of. This is no exception to the rule—do yourself a favor and pick this up. ( )