All The Sinners Bleed
the new thriller from the award-winning author of RAZORBLADE TEARS
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4.0 • 25 Ratings
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
***GUARDIAN BEST CRIME AND THRILLERS OF 2023*** THE TIMES - THRILLER OF THE MONTH***
*** MAIL ON SUNDAY - BEST NEW FICTION*** FINANCIAL TIMES - BEST NEW CRIME BOOKS***
'A crackling good police procedural....fresh and exhilarating' STEPHEN KING
'Gripping' MICHAEL CONNELLY
'Titus Crown is one of the most compelling characters I've read in a long time.' STEVE CAVANAGH
A BLACK SHERIFF. A SERIAL KILLER.
AND A SMALL TOWN READY TO COMBUST.
Titus Crown is the first Black sheriff in the history of Charon County, Virginia. In recent decades, Charon has had only two murders. After years of working as an FBI agent, no one knows better than Titus that while his hometown might seem like a land of moonshine, cornbread, and honeysuckle, secrets always fester under the surface.
But a year to the day after Titus's election, a school teacher is killed by a former student. The student is then fatally shot by Titus's deputies.
As Titus investigates the shootings, he unearths terrible crimes, and a serial killer who has been hiding in plain sight, haunting the dirt lanes and woodland clearings of Charon. With the killer's possible connections to a local church and the town's harrowing history weighing on him, Titus tries to project confidence about closing the case while concealing a painful secret from his own past. At the same time, he also has to contend with a far-right group that wants to hold a parade in celebration of the town's Confederate history.
Charon is Titus's home and his heart. But where faith and violence meet, there will be a reckoning.
'Richly textured, this is elegant, fierce storytelling at its absolute best.' DAILY MAIL
'A distinctive, thrilling new voice in crime writing...will linger long after you've closed the book' DAILY EXPRESS
'American crime fiction has found its future and his name is S.A. Cosby' DENNIS LEHANE
'One of the most important new voices in crime fiction. I won't read a better book this year. Incredible.' M. W. CRAVEN
'A powerful crime thriller that pulls no punches' VASEEM KHAN
'An uncompromising, blistering Southern Gothic with a compelling, beautifully drawn protagonist in Titus Crown. Cosby's writing sings.' MASON CROSS
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this superb thriller from Anthony Award winner Cosby (Razorblade Tears), Titus Crown, the first Black sheriff of Charon County, Va., is investigating a high school shooting that leaves a history teacher and his killer dead. Before long, Titus uncovers evidence that both men participated in the ritualistic killings of seven Black children who had disappeared from the area over the past several years. Recovered video of the children's murders reveals the involvement of a third party and presumed ringleader: a mysterious figure hidden behind a wolf mask. As Titus and his deputies set out to find the third man, the investigation narrows onto both a local church run by a white racist and on one of the county's most powerful families, and more murders stack up. The hard-edged storytelling is supplemented by richly developed characters, especially Titus and his family, and Cosby elegantly layers his narrative over Virginia's racial history, giving the proceedings uncommon emotional depth. This is easily the author's strongest work to date.
Customer Reviews
Nothing to Crow about
Titus Crowne was born and raised in prophetically named Charon county, Virginia where the confederacy, Jim Crow, and fundamentalist church services featuring snakes never died, and almost everything has racist undertones, including the graft and corruption. He lived “up north” for 10 years while working for the FBI, from which he resigned, ostensibly to help care for his ageing father, but also because he was under a cloud professionally.
Within a matter of months, he is elected sheriff, thanks mainly to a fragile coalition of black voters, at least some of whom feel let down 12 months later by his insistence on upholding the letter of the law. Like every fictional detective, he has personal issues too. His are chiefly around commitment.
Local tensions threaten to boil over after a drug addicted black ex-student of the local high school shoots a popular white schoolteacher in his classroom, and is in turn gunned down by two white deputies. The investigation opens a can of worms, and snakes. Our boy takes considerable flak, literally as well as figuratively, in his pursuit the truth, but gets there eventually.
Writing
Third person narrative, mostly from the POV of the primary protagonist. Gritty without resorting to gratuitous shocks. Tension builds gradually, reaching fever pitch for the denouement, which felt a trifle rushed as a result IMO.
As in his previous works, Mr Cosby explores the complexities of race relations in the American south. This time felt less nuanced to me, possibly because the protagonists of his other books were common folk getting a rough deal, rather than law enforcement officers, but it’s still genre fiction of the highest quality.