The Heathens
By Ace Atkins
Release Date: July 13, 2021
Ebook Available from WV Reads!
3.5 Stars - Quinn Colson's back but this time quite a bit has changed in the sheriff's life. Things are a bit more laidback and the series returns to more of its mystery roots. He's on the trail of a couple wayward teenagers accused of murder, and in the meantime he might uncover more than he bargained for in his own county.
Ace Atkins seemed like he was tying up all the lose ends with the last Colson novel but then he hit us with a cliffhanger ending. I assume this is where a few fans decide to tap out on the now long-running series. But Quinn's back to living his life with Maggie, Brandon, the new baby, and happily back as sheriff. His first case back sort of puts him at odds with Lilly, less so through the first half than you would think. It was kind of a nice change of pace though. The newest dumb criminals are surprisingly sympathetic while being pathetic all the same.
There's a lot of Bonnie and Clyde references here to TJ and her boyfriend but they seemed a bit far fetched. Lilly's never been impartial which is a bad quality in law enforcement but it's particularly glaring here with TJ. Atkins has a weird way with his characters where he certainly can be insulting to them, even use some pretty bad stereotypes. But he does it across the board so I guess it's all fair. I wish we'd gotten a better new big bad villian though. We've already been through Stagg, Varterman, and Miss Fanny's antics before. He made it pretty difficult to change that up and be original. Also, his writing style is great with an almost lyrical and usually humorous quality. But this time, it seemed a bit too wordy. That could have been me or it could have been the book. We did get a few side characters moving on with their lives this time so it was cool to have different points of view for a change. And I think it actually let a little more of the spotlight show on Quinn, which was great. So some things are new and some are the same, but it's always a fun ride in this series.
(NS)
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