The Heathens

May 1, 2021
The usual suspects in Tibbehah County have to make room for a new firecracker in town. Or more precisely, from town, since no sooner does Tanya Jane Byrd realize that she's the prime suspect in the murder of her no-account mother, Gina, than she takes to the road with her 9-year-old brother, John Wesley, her boyfriend, Ladarius McCade, and her best friend, Holly Harkins, a waitress at the Captain's Table who's thoughtful enough to steal her momma's minivan for the occasion. Sheriff Quinn Colson, back in the saddle after his latest round of job-related injuries in The Revelators (2020), gives chase along with Deputy U.S. Marshals Lillie Virgil and Charlie Hodge and the folks who really did have Gina Byrd killed, dismembered, and stashed in a bleach-filled barrel in a local dump in the first place. But it's really TJ's show, and she makes the most of the spotlight even before she hits the road, demanding that Gina's much older boyfriend, Chester Pratt, return the $18,980 insurance settlement he took from Gina. Chester, deeply in debt to Dixie Mafia stalwart Johnny T. Stagg, is in no position to pay back the money; in fact, he's getting serious pressure from Stagg's enforcers. Things get even hotter when TJ and her crew hook up with budding social influencer Chastity Bloodgood, who offers them the hospitality of her car-dealer father's vacation home in Hot Springs if only they'll kill her despised stepmother. The combustible mixture of variously violent personalities leaves less room than usual for Quinn's self-critical memories of Hamp Beckett, his late uncle and predecessor, and they seem more out of place than usual when they come. A wild chase with walk-on roles for every lowlife from North Mississippi to New Orleans.

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Starred review from May 10, 2021
In Edgar finalist Atkins’s exceptional 11th crime thriller featuring Tibbehah County, Miss., Sheriff Quinn Colson (after 2020’s The Revelators), Colson’s complex family past complicates a murder investigation. Gina Byrd, a drug addict who was a classmate of Colson’s, is reported missing by her boyfriend after he finds some bloody clothes near her trailer. When Byrd’s dismembered remains turn up covered in bleach and stuffed into a barrel, Byrd’s 17-year-old daughter, TJ, who recently beat up her mother, is a natural suspect. TJ is reluctant to trust Colson, because the previous sheriff, Hamp Beckett, Colson’s uncle, was rumored to have killed her father, and fears she’s being framed. TJ flees town along with her nine-year-old brother, John Wesley, and her boyfriend, pursued by Colson’s friend and former subordinate, Lillie Virgil, now a deputy U.S. Marshal. Atkins artfully alternates between that pursuit and Colson’s search for the people he believes slaughtered Byrd. The diverse cast of characters and their intricate relationships elevate this above most other gritty crime novels. Atkins is writing at the top of his game. Agent: Dan Conaway, Writers House.

Starred review from July 1, 2021
Quinn Colson, sheriff of Tibbehah County, Mississippi, would like to settle into his new role as a father, but that's not about to happen after Gina Byrd's remains are found stuffed into an oil drum, and the evidence points to Gina's daughter, 16-year-old TJ--no stranger to hell-raising and known to have sparred with her alcoholic mother. TJ is innocent (at least of that murder), but she knows the deck is stacked against her and sees no other option but running. So begins a rambunctious road novel in which TJ, along with her nine-year-old brother, John Wesley; her boyfriend, Ladarius; and her best friend, Holly, light out for the territories but only get as far as Louisiana before the convoy on her tail--including Quinn, who thinks TJ's been framed; U.S. Marshal Lillie Virgil, who isn't so sure; and two of the titular heathens, who just want TJ dead--catches up, and the guns come out. Series lead Quinn takes a back seat here to the foul-mouthed, freewheeling, but utterly endearing TJ, and TJ is more than ready for the limelight. Evoking Edward Anderson's 1937 country noir Thieves like Us, with a touch of Bonnie and Clyde, Atkins' hard-edged yet tenderhearted novel will keep readers rooting for TJ and her gang of inadvertent outlaws on the road to the better lives they crave.

COPYRIGHT(2021) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

July 1, 2021
Quinn Colson, sheriff of Tibbehah County, Mississippi, would like to settle into his new role as a father, but that's not about to happen after Gina Byrd's remains are found stuffed into an oil drum, and the evidence points to Gina's daughter, 16-year-old TJ--no stranger to hell-raising and known to have sparred with her alcoholic mother. TJ is innocent (at least of that murder), but she knows the deck is stacked against her and sees no other option but running. So begins a rambunctious road novel in which TJ, along with her nine-year-old brother, John Wesley; her boyfriend, Ladarius; and her best friend, Holly, light out for the territories but only get as far as Louisiana before the convoy on her tail--including Quinn, who thinks TJ's been framed; U.S. Marshal Lillie Virgil, who isn't so sure; and two of the titular heathens, who just want TJ dead--catches up, and the guns come out. Series lead Quinn takes a back seat here to the foul-mouthed, freewheeling, but utterly endearing TJ, and TJ is more than ready for the limelight. Evoking Edward Anderson's 1937 country noir Thieves like Us, with a touch of Bonnie and Clyde, Atkins' hard-edged yet tenderhearted novel will keep readers rooting for TJ and her gang of inadvertent outlaws on the road to the better lives they crave.

COPYRIGHT(2021) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.