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Published Jun 2022
272 pages
Genre: Thrillers
Publication Information
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 is a literary master across genres, and his most recent novel The Killing Hills was one of his most successful, earning him a new audience and earning praise from the likes of the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and CrimeReads. His latest book, Shifty's Boys, is a compelling, propulsive thriller of murder and mayhem in the hills 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's Barney Kissick, the local heroin dealer, and the city police see it as an occupational hazard. But when Barney's mother, Shifty, asks Mick to take a look, it seems there's more to the killing than first appeared. Mick should be rehabbing his leg, signing his divorce papers, and getting out of town—and most of all, staying out of the way of his sister Linda's reelection as Sheriff—but he keeps on looking, and suddenly he's getting shot at himself.
A dark, pacy crime novel about grief and revenge, and the surprises hidden below the surface, Shifty's Boys is a tour de force that confirms Chris Offutt's Mick Hardin as one of the most appealing new investigators in fiction.
"Another excellent Mick Hardin thriller set in rural eastern Kentucky...Come for the thriller, by all means; it delivers nicely. But stay for, and linger in, the marvelous incidentals and atmospherics...Terrific characters; taut suspense. Another winner from Offutt." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"This is country noir at its most powerful, combining cracking action with crystalline portraits of rough-hewn but savvy characters tragically forced to become 'retribution killers' to stop yet another cycle of violence." - Booklist (starred review)
"[A] strong sequel...Readers will appreciate the novel's respectful portrayal of the contemporary South as they ride along with Mick on his fair-minded, almost spiritual quest to root out the truth. Fans of contemporary small-town mysteries will look forward to Offut's next." - Publishers Weekly
"Offutt follows the beautifully written The Killing Hills with another dark mystery featuring Mick Hardin. Fans of the author's poetic writing, with moments of sly humor, will welcome this second compelling story of family, community, and grief." - Library Journal
"With The Killing Hills and now Shifty's Boys, Chris Offutt has launched a fantastic and compelling new crime novel series, and as a reader you may come to these books for the murders and the mysteries, rendered as they are with great page-turning style and thrilling action, but there's even more at work here. These books are also about a place and its people, and the result is a vivid portrait infused with insight and wisdom, humanity and affection. I eagerly await the next Mick Hardin!" - Jonathan Ames, author of A Man Named Doll
"Shifty's Boys is a tale of vengeance that asks difficult questions about the nature and value of honor, every line delivered with the relentless efficiency of a wolf stripping meat from a bone. In Mick Hardin, Chris Offutt has created a complex, brooding hero, a man whose moral code was hewn from Kentucky hill-country rock. As his world turns darker and dirtier by the minute, once the brutal work is done, we are left with only a few words. More Mick, please." - Christopher J. Yates, author of Grist Mill Road
This information about Shifty's Boys was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Chris Offutt is the author of the short-story collections Kentucky Straight and Out of the Woods, the novel The Good Brother, and three memoirs: The Same River Twice, No Heroes, and My Father, the Pornographer. His work has appeared in Best American Short Stories and Best American Essays, among many other places. He has written screenplays for Weeds, True Blood, and Treme, and has received fellowships from the Lannan and Guggenheim foundations.
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