Do you have a series that’s so deeply enjoyable to you, reading it’s like slipping on a good, comfortable pair of jeans or drinking something tasty out of a favorite glass? That’s the Quinn Colson series for me.
Eight books in and there’s not much differentiating one from another, this one included. But man, I really do enjoy these. Atkins creates great characters and he does such a fantastic job building this setting. Every story adds a layer to fictional Tibbehah County and I’m here for it.
This one sidelines Quinn more than most; here he’s just doing occasional cop interviews and planning to get married. Instead, we get the machinations of the criminals and it’s a lot of fun. Even if the “bad guy returns after all these years” trope is getting tired, I still enjoy how Atkins writes it. I also really love Fannie Hathcock and the dirty dealings of southern gangsters from Memphis down the Mississippi.
At the conclusion of the last one, I was worried the book would miss Lillie Virgil, who I often found to be a compelling character. But it’s fine here. In fact, one less character who requires scenes probably helped streamline the narrative a bit.
I started these books just before the pandemic hit. Said pandemic has led me to binge the first eight…and I picked up number nine today from my library. Ten just hit stores. I can’t believe I’m already so close to catching up on this series. One of my favorite crime fiction ones of all-time.