The Redeemers

May 11, 2015
Bestseller Atkins’s weak fifth crime novel featuring Afghan-veteran-turned-lawman Quinn Colson (after 2014’s The Forsaken) finds Quinn in his last days as sheriff of Mississippi’s Tibbehah County, having lost the last election to a much less competent man. His loyal deputy, Lillie Virgil, accompanies him on a rescue mission to South Memphis, where the judicious use of an ax handle enables Quinn to free his drug-addicted sister, Caddy, from some very bad company. Meanwhile, an inept group of crooks plot revenge on a man who complained about some work one of them did for him by breaking into the safe in his house. Action junkies may lose patience with the book’s slow first half, which is replete with Colson family dynamics. Besides trying to get Caddy to become serious about recovery, Quinn must deal with his dysfunctional father. Things pick up in the concluding sections, but the characters lack depth this time out. Agent: Esther Newberg, ICM.

Starred review from May 15, 2015
The sheriff of Tibbehah County, Mississippi, is out of a job but not out of trouble. When former Army Ranger Quinn Colson became sheriff, he cleaned up drug gangs, solved murders old and new, and helped the county recover from a devastating tornado. But he didn't win re-election or bring down his archenemy, Johnny Stagg, whose legal businesses are just a cover for a vast network of corruption and criminal activities. There are hopeful signs, though. Stagg's efforts to bribe incoming sheriff Rusty Wise are going nowhere, and his new right-hand man, Ringold, is actually an FBI agent working with Colson to bring him down. Colson and deputy Lillie Virgil have just hauled Colson's troubled sister, Caddy, out of a Memphis crack house and into a rehab facility. Lillie's problems go back to her childhood and the recent murder of the man she loved, whose killer Colson is still seeking. Meantime, a couple of good old boys plot to steal a bundle from local lumber-mill owner Larry Cobb with the help of an Alabama safecracker and his dumb, football-crazed nephew. Mickey Walls hates Cobb, his ex-father-in-law, and enlists his friend Kyle to work with the burglars while he establishes an alibi. Unable to open the safe, the luckless crew hauls it away, attracting the attention of a deputy who's wounded by the nephew. Along with money and jewels, the safe contains the detailed books Cobb kept of all his crooked dealings, details that could ruin political careers and send many to jail. Colson is left pondering his future job possibilities, his continuing romance with his high school sweetheart (who's just split with her husband), and his relationship with his long-absent father. But unless he and Lillie clean up the latest crimes, he may not live to worry about his future. Colson's fifth (The Forsaken, 2014, etc.) is another wild ride for a flawed, valiant hero who's impossible to dislike.

COPYRIGHT(2015) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

May 15, 2015
Start on page one, and learn right off what a fine writer Atkins can be, as two reprobate country boys cook up a safecracking scheme. Keep reading and watch the main character, Quinn Colson, rescue his kid sister from a crack den. The writing is deceptively plain, an unadorned anti-style, rhythmic and hard to look away from. Read further, and wonder why Atkins has allowed a collection of backwoods dim bulbs to take over his carefully controlled narrative. There is much passing of gas here, and nose picking, and a tiresome fondness for two words: ass and shit. The plot involves Colson's attempt to catch the safecrackers, but some readers might find themselves starting to count the shits. Things improve when the investigation begins, and Atkins again shows what he can do, but we still stumble over an ole boy who describes what he'd like to do with the girl and a can of butter spray. Authenticity? Yes, maybe, but it smells a little bit like . . . well, parody. Still, country-noir connoisseurs aren't known for delicate noses.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

February 1, 2015

Forced from his job as sheriff of Tibbehah County, MS, owing to some ugly maneuvering by county bad guy Johnny Stagg, Quinn Colson is getting ready to wipe Stagg off the map when the local lumber mill owner is robbed and the new sheriff killed during the investigation. Now Quinn has another plan.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.