In this gripping new crime novel from the New York Times-bestselling author, Quinn Colson returns to take down a criminal syndicate that has ravaged his community, threatened his family, and tried to have him killed.Shot up and left for dead, Sheriff Quinn Colson has revenge on his mind. With the help of his new wife Maggie, rehabilitation, and sheer force of will, he’s walking again, eager to … walking again, eager to resume his work as a southern lawman and track down those responsible for his attempted murder. But someone is standing in his way: an interim sheriff, appointed by the newly elected Governor Vardaman, the man who Quinn knows ordered his murder. Vardaman sits at the top of the state’s power structure–both legal and criminal–and little does he know, Quinn is still working to take him down.
Quinn will enlist the help of his most trusted friends, including federal agent Jon Holliday, U.S. Marshal Lillie Virgil, and Nat Wilikins, an undercover agent now working for crime queen Fannie Hathcock. Since Quinn’s been gone, the criminal element in north Mississippi has flourished, with Hathcock enjoying unbridled freedom. Now as a bustling factory shuts down, a labor leader ends up dead, and Quinn’s own nephew goes missing, everything looks to be unraveling. Even an old friend from Quinn’s past, Donnie Varner, is out of jail and up to his own ways.
Quinn Colson and company have been planning for years, and now they’re finally ready to bust apart a criminal empire running on a rigged system for far too long. This is the Battle of Jericho, the epic showdown that’s been years in the making. Eventually, the war will end–for better or worse.
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Great writing, lots of action, and Atkins’ signature wit, make this a don’t-miss in his Quinn Colson series — just optioned for HBO!
This book packs a wallop. I’d never read any of the Quinn Colson novels before now, but that didn’t matter: I was rooting for him from page one. Quinn Colson has just been shot. From some writers, this might’ve felt melodramatic. Here, a strong narrative voice captured my emotions. By the end of page two, I was invested in Quinn’s survival and in seeing justice served. But is it?
Well . . . Let’s say that the path to justice is a long, winding uphill road, and nothing is ever truly final. Nor is it ever perfect.
MULTIPLE PERSPECTIVES, ENGAGING CHARACTERS
Atkins uses multiple perspectives to build up his story. It’s particularly effective as we get close to the climax of the novel. We see the different agendas and varying levels of knowledge leading to conflicting goals. Or are they really conflicting? The suspense builds steadily throughout the novel. As I neared the end of the story, I was reading in an almost breathless state, eager to find out what happens next.
There are a lot of story threads to follow. Fanny and her organized crime ring. Donnie Varner’s return from jail. Caddy’s determined fight against the deportation of immigrants and equally determined fight for their children. Jason’s determination to protect his first love, Ana Gabriel. And not the least of all, Quinn’s fight to regain his status as sheriff. Lots of story threads here. But Atkins makes it work without much confusion, even for a first time reader like me.
Part of this lies in his characters. He gives us well-developed, complex characters who are as emotionally engaging as they are interesting. Even Fanny Hathcock, depraved and warped, tugged at my emotions–even when she was killing someone. Especially when she was killing someone.
It’s not always easy to tell the good and bad guys apart from each other. (Or as Quinn’s mama might put it, the righteous from the unrighteous.) Atkins played with my expectations, making me question what my assumptions based on appearances. And while I know appearances can be deceptive, somehow I was still deceived. Or maybe that’s a mark of how powerful Atkins’ writing is.
NARRATIVE VOICE
And oh my stars, the narrative voice. It sucked me into its vortex on page one and swirled me around and around, deeper and deeper into its grip, and didn’t spit me out until the final page. The story has perfect pacing. Every time some problem seemed resolved, then a new one hit the characters in the face.
As someone born and raised in the “Bible belt,” I’m sensitive to how “Yankees”–that’s Southern-talk for anyone not from the South–portray us. Most of the time, they resort to cliches about trailer parks and fried okra and a superficial understanding of our area, especially the complicated, horrific racial history that still affects us. Not so here. Atkins has nailed the voice of Southern fiction. It feels genuinely Southern, all our quirks and complexities and contradictions captured on the page, the beautiful and nasty and bewildering tangled together.
ONE FAVORITE THING . . .
Oh, it’s hard to pick only one! But I’ll go with Sancho. He’s Ana Gabriel’s little brother (Ana Gabriel is Quinn’s nephew Jason’s first love/crush/girlfriend.) and he is a hoot. He made me snort with laughter at several points.
In short, this is a wonderful novel. I recommend it to any fan of crime fiction.
5 STARS.
Thanks to Putnam Books and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This review will appear on my blog on July 10, 2020.
Not a very good book. Crude and vile language throughout. Nothing good about this book!
Some of the characters were well done. My problem was with the number of characters. From one day to the next, I had trouble remembering just which of the characters was supposed to be the good guys and which the bad. Too many story lines based on too many characters. Although each was well done, there was just too many.
Revelator: one that reveals, especially one who reveals the will of god
It’s been a while since I dropped into Tibbehah County in northern Mississippi to spend time with former army ranger Quinn Colson and his one-armed sidekick, Boom. This is Atkin’s 10th installment in the series. He also writes the Spencer novels for the Robert Parker estate. If you haven’t checked them out, do so. Atkins is every bit as good as Parker.
What are the chances? Burke’s A Private Cathedral is about a time traveling revelator and Atkins book snatches the word for the title.
Ex-sheriff—or sheriff in waiting, it’s not real clear—Colson is back fighting crime in what has to be the poorest, most lawless county this side of the moon. But there are good people and those people are worth spending time with. They do not back down when the rest of us—the saner slice of the population—would stay home behind locked doors or just skedaddle out of Tibbehah County, Mississippi. Certainly there must be better places to reside in the Magnolia State.
Several stories converge as Colson—getting stronger by the week from a life-threatening ambush attack in the previous book—circles in on the low-lives. And we’re talking bottom-of-your-shoe scum. Crooked politicians, corrupt lawmen, and an ex–stripper who, to protect her kingdom of illegality, bludgeons a man to death after her hired button man plugs two cardboard thugs. It takes off from there, for Atkins, like Burke, is not a fan of less is more. Colson’s sister, Caddy, is here as well, doing good in a county that seems a century behind the rest of the world. She is a strong character who adds to every scene she is in.
Warning: there is not a character in the land who cannot speak the English language without peppering it with curse words. Atkins uses the same tongue in his prose. I’m not offended—it just gets tedious. You do learn this: every word in the dictionary can serve as a prefix to ‘ass.’ Good to know.
Atkins does a nice job of converging the stories, including one in which immigrant parents are carted off, leaving children to fend for themselves. Is not separating children from their parents a form of madness, of evil, on par with anything Burke or Atkins can dream of? Maybe all we can do is shake our heads—and cuss.
Without getting into the nitty, gritty details, just when I thought that Atkins was wrapping up the Quinn Colson series, in walks the next antagonist for the series continued survival. Enough said and I can’t believe I have to wait another year to find out the new direction of this incredible series.
Another great book in this series
Thanks to netgalley.com, Ace Atkins and Penguin Group Putnam for the advance ARC copy for my honest review.
“The Revelators” picks up where “The Shameless” ended but Atkins pulls it off the unthinkable, of putting the lead character in harm’s way and masterfully pulls it off. When Sheriff Quinn Colson gets set-up, getting bushwhacked, he created a believable, plausible storyline that sucks you in, with his childhood friend Boom coming to his rescue, your right there and your wishing you had either a Sig Sauer or Ruger 22 in hand to help him.
Plus the cherry on top of “The Revelators”, is the extra helping of US Marshall Lillie Virgie you get with this one. Makes you which, he’d create her own series, be win-win for the reader with the yearly Colson, Spencer books and you’d also get a Virgie one.
Quinn Colson’s back, the tougher than nails Sheriff of Tibbehah County, recovering from being shot multiple times, builds chemistry with his pregnant wife Maggie while recovering, has an intertwining storylines ripped right out of the headlines, you got badass U.S. Marshall Lillie Virgie, loyal deputy Reggie, his best friend Boom, his mom, sister Caddy, then mix in the Dixie Mafia, Fannie Hathcock, Gov. Jimmy Vardaman, the Choctaw tribe and the Watchman Society.
How can you not like the Quinn Colson character? He’s blue collar, digs old Country and Western music, not the candy ass shit they play these days, he’s tough as nails, an ex-Ranger who makes Reacher look like a wimp, protecting troubled Tibbehah County as it’s Sheriff, family oriented, thinks of nothing to help friends and Atkins just makes him larger than life with his words.
Ace Atkins just never disappoints, he’s the ultimate master of character development, just breathes life into them good or bad, they play a vital role in the storylines and aren’t just needless distractions to the overall story.
With each new Quinn Colson novel, he keeps raising the bar with each offering, with new elements added to the mix and leaves you eagerly waiting for the next Quinn’s adventure. You got your finger’s crossed that badass US Marshall Lillie Virgie will find her way into the storyline.
Atkins should be in every reader’s book case, he’s that good of an author and just feel he deserves more recognition than he gets.
Author Bob Mayer refers to the big known publishing house authors as Airport Authors. Well Ace Atkins would be my favorite airport author, he can out write James Patterson and has a legend smilin’ down on him.