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3.85 AVERAGE
3.85 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
funny
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I love these books. The writing is excellent and every book despite having the usual cast of characters (Quinn, Boom, Lillie) they introduce the people that the new book revolves around. This book is about the disappearance and death of TJ Byrd's mother. TJ is accused of the crime and goes on the run with her boyfriend and little brother. A liquor store owner, a couple of roofers, and the infamous Johnny Stagg are involved too.
The writing, characters, and dialogue are great. Lillie Virgil is always my favorite for attitude and dialogue.
The writing, characters, and dialogue are great. Lillie Virgil is always my favorite for attitude and dialogue.
Ace Atkins has done it again, The Heathens is a new masterpiece with Quinn Colson set as ususal in Tibbehah county down south. Did TJ Byrd kill her momma? Or is she running because no one believes her? What is it with the roofers and what has Johnny Stagg going on? Well read the damn book for your self and find out. If you by some strange reason haven't started reading this series you better do so right now. It's fenomenal. By the way don't miss the Quinn Colson playlist on Spotify, it's great. My thanks goes out to @putnambooks and @this_is_edelweiss for giving me this advance copy of the latest book by @aceatkins one of the best authors out there.
The Heathens is the eleventh novel in Ace Atkins’s Sheriff Quinn Colson series. The series began in 2011 with The Ranger, and Atkins has added a new novel to the series every year since the first one. That is a fairly standard schedule for most series authors, but the remarkable thing about Atkins is that he has been able to keep to his book-a-year schedule even after having been tapped by the Robert B. Parker estate to continue Parker’s outstanding Spenser series of books. Since 2012 Atkins has added ten new novels to that forty-nine-book series.
As The Heathens opens, Sheriff Quinn Colson is in a good place. He and Maggie have a new baby girl, and Quinn is closer than ever to Brandon, Maggie’s little boy. Maggie, a nurse, and the children have brought new life to the old family farm Quinn has lived on his whole life. Now almost forty years old, Quinn is a genuinely happy man for the first time in his life. Some things, however, never change — and the Byrd family is one of those things. It seems like something is always going on with the Byrds that requires the sheriff’s attention. If it’s not Gina Byrd, a drug addict who regularly suffers physical abuse at the hands of the men in her life, it’s TJ, Gina’s sixteen-year-old daughter, who is accused of petty theft or fighting again.
But it won’t be so simple this time. Now, Gina Byrd has disappeared, and after her body is found and TJ and her boyfriend Ladarius become suspects in the murder, the teens and TJ’s nine-year-old brother hit the road, always just barely one step ahead of the law. The problem is that Quinn is not the only one chasing them — and not all the chasers are interested in keeping the kids alive long enough to figure out exactly what happened to Gina Byrd.
Among the chasers is Lillie Virgil, a former deputy of Quinn’s who is now a U.S. Marshal. Unlike Quinn, Lillie is already convinced that TJ and Ladarius are guilty of murder and she is determined to catch up with them. So while Lillie chases the teens from state to state, Quinn investigates the case from Tibbeha County, Mississippi. And the more he learns, the more he is convinced that TJ and Ladarius had nothing to do with the murder of TJ’s mother. The problem is that someone very much wants to see TJ and Ladarius dead rather than in a jail cell. Now, he and Lillie need to catch up with the runaways before their Bonnie-and-Clyde-like chase ends up just like the original one.
Bottom Line: Longtime readers of the Quinn Colson series feel comfortable in the Tibbeha County setting, and they will enjoy again catching up with their favorite characters (even the bad guys). By this point, the sheriff has done much to clean up the county corruption the former sheriff, Quinn’s own uncle, more often than not turned a blind eye to, but there’s still a lot to do. Some things just never seem to change.
(Review copy provided by Publisher)
As The Heathens opens, Sheriff Quinn Colson is in a good place. He and Maggie have a new baby girl, and Quinn is closer than ever to Brandon, Maggie’s little boy. Maggie, a nurse, and the children have brought new life to the old family farm Quinn has lived on his whole life. Now almost forty years old, Quinn is a genuinely happy man for the first time in his life. Some things, however, never change — and the Byrd family is one of those things. It seems like something is always going on with the Byrds that requires the sheriff’s attention. If it’s not Gina Byrd, a drug addict who regularly suffers physical abuse at the hands of the men in her life, it’s TJ, Gina’s sixteen-year-old daughter, who is accused of petty theft or fighting again.
But it won’t be so simple this time. Now, Gina Byrd has disappeared, and after her body is found and TJ and her boyfriend Ladarius become suspects in the murder, the teens and TJ’s nine-year-old brother hit the road, always just barely one step ahead of the law. The problem is that Quinn is not the only one chasing them — and not all the chasers are interested in keeping the kids alive long enough to figure out exactly what happened to Gina Byrd.
Among the chasers is Lillie Virgil, a former deputy of Quinn’s who is now a U.S. Marshal. Unlike Quinn, Lillie is already convinced that TJ and Ladarius are guilty of murder and she is determined to catch up with them. So while Lillie chases the teens from state to state, Quinn investigates the case from Tibbeha County, Mississippi. And the more he learns, the more he is convinced that TJ and Ladarius had nothing to do with the murder of TJ’s mother. The problem is that someone very much wants to see TJ and Ladarius dead rather than in a jail cell. Now, he and Lillie need to catch up with the runaways before their Bonnie-and-Clyde-like chase ends up just like the original one.
Bottom Line: Longtime readers of the Quinn Colson series feel comfortable in the Tibbeha County setting, and they will enjoy again catching up with their favorite characters (even the bad guys). By this point, the sheriff has done much to clean up the county corruption the former sheriff, Quinn’s own uncle, more often than not turned a blind eye to, but there’s still a lot to do. Some things just never seem to change.
(Review copy provided by Publisher)
Good Solid Ace Atkins
Good structure to this thriller, bringing in old characters and introducing new ones. Greatly enjoy reading this series, and look forward to the next one.
Good structure to this thriller, bringing in old characters and introducing new ones. Greatly enjoy reading this series, and look forward to the next one.
i read a couple of other novels by this author and liked them way better than this. this one is very short on story, but padded out to over 400 pages with atmospherics and descriptions of the "colorful" characters that populate the story. this would have made a teriffic short story.
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Ace Atkins has done it again, The Heathens is a new masterpiece with Quinn Colson set as ususal in Tibbehah county down south. Did TJ Byrd kill her momma? Or is she running because no one believes her? What is it with the roofers and what has Johnny Stagg going on? Well read the damn book for your self and find out. If you by some strange reason haven't started reading this series you better do so right now. It's fenomenal. By the way don't miss the Quinn Colson playlist on Spotify, it's great. My thanks goes out to @putnambooks and @this_is_edelweiss for giving me this advance copy of the latest book by @aceatkins one of the best authors out there.
Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.
The Heathens is the 11th Quinn Colson novel by Ace Atkins. Released 13th July 2021 by Penguin Putnam on their G.P. Putnam's Sons imprint, it's 416 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats.
This is a plainly written gutsy investigative procedural featuring an interesting dual plot following both Quinn Colson's investigation into the murder of a local woman and his ex-deputy's tracking the suspects wanted in the same murder. The writing is, as always, tight and unvarnished and engaging. The author's adept at writing action and equally talented with natural and believable dialogue.
I have enjoyed the other books in the series and recommend them, but this one works pretty well as a standalone. The author has tied up a number of multi-book plot threads in the previous book, so logistically speaking, this is a good place to jump in to the series.
This book will appeal to fans of the Longmire books, as well as Crais' Cole & Pike. This is by no means a derivative work, but it certainly has the same authenticity and realism in the characters, descriptions, and dialogue.
Four stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
The Heathens is the 11th Quinn Colson novel by Ace Atkins. Released 13th July 2021 by Penguin Putnam on their G.P. Putnam's Sons imprint, it's 416 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats.
This is a plainly written gutsy investigative procedural featuring an interesting dual plot following both Quinn Colson's investigation into the murder of a local woman and his ex-deputy's tracking the suspects wanted in the same murder. The writing is, as always, tight and unvarnished and engaging. The author's adept at writing action and equally talented with natural and believable dialogue.
I have enjoyed the other books in the series and recommend them, but this one works pretty well as a standalone. The author has tied up a number of multi-book plot threads in the previous book, so logistically speaking, this is a good place to jump in to the series.
This book will appeal to fans of the Longmire books, as well as Crais' Cole & Pike. This is by no means a derivative work, but it certainly has the same authenticity and realism in the characters, descriptions, and dialogue.
Four stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.