Review: "The Killing Hills" by Chris Offutt
Chris
Offutt’s third novel, The Killing Hills, is a smooth, at times lyrical,
crime novel set in Kentucky’s hill country. Mick Hardin is a combat veteran of
Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria, and one of the Army’s best criminal investigators.
His specialty is homicide. Mick is home from Germany on emergency leave. His
wife is pregnant, but a few lies and at least one betrayal have interrupted
their relationship. Mick is staying alone and drinking long into the nights in
his granddad’s old cabin.
His
sister, Linda, is the new county sheriff. When the body of a local woman,
Nonnie Johnson, is found murdered in the woods, Linda needs Mick’s help. A
local politician is pressuring her to give the investigation to the city cops
or the Feds, but Linda won’t have it. The locals, with their culture of
vigilante justice, are stonewalling Mick’s questions and a local bigwig’s
pet-FBI agent is circling and waiting for Linda and Mick to make a mistake.
The
Killing Hills is a brilliantly developed, character-driven,
detective story with a mature and inhospitable setting. The hills are a place
where people live poorly and die young. Mick straddles the line between being
accepted as a local and being distrusted as an outsider. He joined the Army,
got out, and (mostly) stayed out.
The
investigation into Nonnie’s death takes the reader into an underbelly of drugs,
jealousy, and hard local truths. The crime’s solution is surprising, but it is
the exploration of Kentucky’s rural wasteland of poverty and familial grudges
that give The Killing Hills shine.
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a little more about The Killing Hills… · · The Killing Hills was published by Grove Press in June 2021 in hardcover, and as a trade paperback by No Exit Press in Nov. 2021. |
A great book. He has another one out later this year with the same main character.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't heard Offutt has another Mick Hardin book coming out this year. I love good news, thanks for sharing, Col.
DeleteAfter I posted I realised a bit more detail might have been useful....
ReplyDeleteShifty's Boys in June.
Army-CID-officer-cum-unofficial-PI Mick Hardin is up against unforeseen forces who will stop at nothing in this vividly atmospheric thriller from acclaimed novelist Chris Offutt.
Chris Offutt isa literary master across genres, and his most recent novel THE KILLING HILLSwas one of his most successful, earning him a new audience and earningpraise from the likes of The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal,and Crime Reads. His latest book, Shifty’sBoys, is a compelling, propulsive thriller of murder and mayhem in thehills of eastern Kentucky.
Mick Hardin is home on leave,recovering from an IED attack, when a body is found in the center of town. It’sBarney Kissick, the local heroin dealer, and the city police see it as anoccupational hazard. But when Barney’s mother, Shifty, asks Mick to take alook, it seems there’s more to the killing than it seems. Mick should be rehabbing his leg, signing his divorce papers, and getting out of town—and mostof all, staying out of the way of his sister Linda’s reelection as Sheriff—buthe keeps on looking, and suddenly he’s getting shot at himself.
A dark, pacy crime novel aboutgrief and revenge, and the surprises hidden below the surface, Shifty’s Boysis a tour de force that confirms Chris Offutt’s Mick Hardin as one of themost appealing new investigators in fiction.
Thanks, Col!
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