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The Mick Hardin Novels #4
by Chris Offutt
Master storyteller Chris Offutt's acclaimed crime series has been praised by Ian Rankin as "righteous Kentucky noir with top notes of Daniel Woodrell and S. A. Cosby," and in this breakneck new novel, sheriff Mick Hardin navigates the treacherous terrain of a town's festering secrets and the violent forces who want to keep them hidden.
Lauded as a "masterclass in the craft of crime fiction" (CrimeReads), Chris Offutt's beloved and critically acclaimed Mick Hardin series is an atmospheric, tightly crafted testament to Southern noir. The Reluctant Sheriff is a dark, bracing return to the hills of eastern Kentucky where secrets roil beneath the surface, and nothing and no one stays in the past for long.
Mick Hardin never wanted to be sheriff. An ex-Army CID officer, he's supposed to be retired—or he was until his sister, Linda, was shot in the line of duty, requiring him to step in as interim sheriff while she recovered. Now he's stuck in Rocksalt, the place he was most hoping to escape.
Back in uniform, Mick is chafing at the sudden dissolution of his retirement plans, wearied by the petty squabbles of Rocksalt's townsfolk. It's all business as usual, until the murder of a local bar owner draws an unlikely suspect who threatens to fan the flames of Mick's past. When two more bodies turn up, seemingly unconnected to the first, Mick is forced to reckon with the mysterious circumstances of a case not so open-and-shut as everyone believes. Meanwhile, Linda is slowly healing when a familiar business tycoon with a vested interest in her returning as sheriff makes it difficult for her to remain on the sidelines.
Unflinching and devilishly compulsive, The Reluctant Sheriff is an explosive thriller confirming Chris Offutt as a Southern writer of muscular prose and unrivaled talent.
"More delightful, sun-dappled Kentucky noir." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Offutt melds sharp prose and satisfying grit in his fourth thriller featuring former Army investigator Mick Hardin...Offutt's sentences are a cut above standard-issue crime fiction ('Only nature itself was consistent—relentless, beautiful, benevolent, and cruel,' Hardin muses), and he continues to add layers to this series' rich rural setting without skimping on pace or plot. The result is an exemplary Southern noir." —Publishers Weekly
"Simply wonderful. Offutt, a native of Kentucky, writes about the area's people and places lovingly, compassionately, and, when the moment calls for it, humorously...The novel is a lovely balance of character and story, and it is, frankly, impossible to imagine anyone not falling a little bit in love with the people of Rocksalt." —Booklist
"Atmospheric, exquisitely written Southern noir." —Library Journal
This information about The Reluctant Sheriff 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 novels Code of the Hills, Shifty's Boys, The Killing Hills, Country Dark, and The Good Brother; the short-story collections Kentucky Straight and Out of the Woods, and three memoirs: The Same River Twice, No Heroes, and My Father, the Pornographer. He has written screenplays for Weeds, True Blood, and Treme, and has received fellowships from the Lannan and Guggenheim foundations. He lives near Oxford, Mississippi.
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