The Blinds

"Part thriller, part Western, part pulpy whodunit, The Blinds is a propulsive and meaningful meditation on redemption and loss." —Dennis Lehane, #1 New York Times–bestselling author
BOLO Top Read of 2017
PopSugar Best Book of 2017

Imagine a place populated by criminals—people plucked from their lives, with their memories altered, who've been granted new identities and a second chance. Welcome to The Blinds, a dusty town in rural Texas populated by misfits who don't know if they've perpetrated a crime or just witnessed one. What's clear to them is that if they leave, they will end up dead.


For eight years, Sheriff Calvin Cooper has kept an uneasy peace—but after a suicide and a murder in quick succession, the town's residents revolt. Cooper has his own secrets to protect, so when his new deputy starts digging, he needs to keep one step ahead of her—and the mysterious outsiders who threaten to tear the whole place down. The more he learns, the more the hard truth is revealed: The Blinds is no sleepy hideaway. It's simmering with violence and deception, aching heartbreak and dark betrayals.

"A quick-paced story of crime and deception . . . The Blinds is a thriller for fans of Westerns, Cormac McCarthy, and the Coen brothers." —The Dallas Morning News
"Cleverly improvising on the chord changes common to classic westerns (especially High Noon) and evoking the locked-room horror of Jim Thompson's The Getaway, Sternbergh shows again why he is one of the most inventive thriller writers working today." —Booklist (starred review)
"The Blinds [is] a thrilling Western unlike any you've read before." —Vulture