Man, I have really been enjoying reading Ace Atkins. “Ace?” I hear you say. Yeah, I know, I know. But the guy can write a good mystery, even with a name like “Ace.” He did some of the “Spencer” series after Robert B. Parker bit the dust. Then he ventured out into new territory with his series about Quinn Colson, Sheriff of fictional Tibbehah County in Northern Mississippi.
Quinn is an ex-Army Ranger who comes back from Afghanistan to his home town and picks up in local law enforcement where his uncle Hamp (now deceased, formerly disgraced) left off. Both Quinn and his uncle have checkered pasts, which only adds to the fun. You know, along with the moonshine, the juke joints, the fried catfish, and more local color from rural Northern Mississippi than most good-old-boys can shake a stick at. Think of it as John Grisham without the law degree, wearing a Carhartt coat and muddy boots.
Hey, it ain’t William Faulkner or Flannery O’Connor. But I know what I like. And as thriller writers go, Ace is A-okay by me. I started off with his most recent (The Heathens – 2021) and I’m steadily working my way back through Atkins’ output aiming toward his initial Quinn Colson offering (The Ranger – 2011). If you get a chance to sample, please let me know what you think. I can’t necessarily vouch for the catfish or the moonshine. But the local color rings true enough to hold MY interest through eleven novels… and counting.
Are more in this series on the way?
This is what Atkins has to say;
“There will always be another Quinn Colson book. But these are weird times and I don’t necessarily want to write about COVID times. It’s very difficult to do an interrogation scene with masks, and Quinn and most of his deputies would be out with COVID. I don’t think people want to read about it.
Fingers crossed, Ace; fingers crossed.
Pandemic’s over; so, high time to get crackin’.