Despite feeling a little old as he faces his future as Instructor at Fort Benning instead of direct operations, 29-year-old Quinn Colson still looked, even in civvies, the battle hardened Ranger he had been in Afghanistan, right from his regulation haircut to how he surveys the environment around him. He had been away from his hometown in Jericho, Mississippi for almost ten years and was now on a week's leave to attend the funeral for his favorite uncle, Hampton Beckett, the Sheriff of Tibbehah County. Shocked to hear that his uncle had committed suicide, Quinn doesn't immediately accept the opinion of his good friend and now Deputy, Lillie Virgil, as she implies that the evidence was not properly handled and that it may not have been a suicide. But, when Johnny Swagg, a corrupt and ambitious glad-handing politician, sends some good old boys to take his uncle's property and cattle from him, Quinn soon finds more action in the deep south than he had on any of his previous missions.

Despite rough riding through the backroads and old lumber trails of Mississippi with a handy cold six pack beside him, Quinn just can't lose himself from the pervasive corruption, backstabbing (including some old childhood friends he thought he could count on), environmental damage from land developers and the whole hypocritical morass that has overtaken his childhood world. Just like a bloodhound on the trail, Quinn just can't let things be and is determined to get to the bottom of what happened to his uncle. Hamp had not abandoned him when he was a kid lost in the woods and he wasn't going to leave before finding out what is really going on. But when his relentless snooping turns over some rotten leaves, he stirs up a vicious hornet's nest of good olde boys, drug dealing, meth manufacturing, land grabbing and linkages with a greedy preacher that soon has him square in the crosshairs of too many guns and fighting more dangerous enemies than he ever faced before.

Best-selling author Ace Atkins has garnered huge acclaim for his previous books and with Quinn Colson as a new hero, he is sure to gain even more fans. Quinn is the quintessential Ranger, kind-hearted and sometimes protective of women and animals, yet totally action- oriented and ready to take on the odds when needed. Riveting right from the get go, Atkins masterfully sets up a fictional town and cast of characters that authentically describe and reflect the rural underworld and flaccid underbelly of the deep south, right from the poverty of the bottom feeding hanger-ons to those in positions of power and authority. Particularly powerful and poignant is the trust and loyalty Quinn has for his best friend, Boom, a Black soldier who lost an arm overseas in battle and now survives in near poverty but still very skilled. Without expounding the point, Atkins highlights the plight of many returning injured vets seeking to regain a place in the society they fought hard to defend. I sure hope there are lots more Quinn Colson books to come in this series! Dive in and relish!

Book Summary

Ace Atkins returns with an extraordinary new series.

Northeast Mississippi, hill country, rugged and notorious for outlaws since the Civil War, where killings are as commonplace as in the Old West. To Quinn Colson, it’s home—but not the home he left when he went to Afghanistan.

Now an Army Ranger, he returns to a place overrun by corruption, and finds his uncle, the county sheriff, dead—a suicide, he’s told, but others whisper murder. In the days that follow, it will be up to Colson to discover the truth, not only about his uncle, but about his family, his friends, his town, and not least about himself. And once discovered, there is no turning back.