A review by pomoevareads
All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This book won’t be for everyone but if you can stomach some sick gore wrapped in some captivating southern noir then Cosby’s latest crime fiction book All the Sinners Bleed might be up your alley. I had to breathe through a few parts as it was a bit much. 

This book is as much about a sheriff working to be a respectable and honorable leader as it is about the town over which he tries to maintain order. A group of confederate supporters want to hold a march in town to honour a statue that seeks to bring the town back to its (racist) roots. Opposing this group is another group led by a modern church leader who wants to see the statue removed and for the town to move forward in a more harmonious community. In the midst of tension between the two groups, a shooting occurs. As a result of the shooting, Titus learns about more deaths that have been carried out in his quiet town. Titus must track down a serial killer among a group of folks who don’t all stand out. 

Cosby excels at getting the reader to root for a character and presents moral issues in a meaningful way. I found his character of a Titus Crown, the first black sheriff in this small Virginian town, to be well built and interesting. Titus has his own demons which we learn about slowly throughout the novel. Many side characters are introduced and keeping notes helped me keep them straight. 

The pacing of the novel starts out a bit slow for a Cosby novel leaving me unsure what to expect but rest assured the action and suspense arrives. I stayed glued to a couple of clues but never guessed who the killer was. Looking back, I can see some more clues that were dropped that I glossed over. 

Overall, I found All the Sinners Bleed hard to put down once I got into it. There was a lot of religious imagery and quotes that didn’t mean as much to me as it will to others but helped develop the story. This book is not for the faint of heart and contains many topics that may be triggering to those who have experienced child abuse in particular. 
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