Editorial Content for The Heathens: A Quinn Colson Novel
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Ace Atkins isn’t getting any younger, but he doesn’t seem to be getting any older either. THE HEATHENS is the newly published 11th book in his critically acclaimed Quinn Colson series, and he continues to perform yeoman’s work in keeping Robert B. Parker’s Spenser series alive. Here he gives readers a tale that should please longtime fans and newcomers alike.
Quinn Colson is the sheriff of Tibbehah County, Mississippi, but as a teenager he was well known to law enforcement in all of the worst ways. A stint in the Army Rangers shaped his resolve but not to the extent that he forgot who he was and where he came from. So when Gina Byrd, a local hardcore drug addict, disappears and is believed to be dead, Quinn is inclined to keep an open mind regarding the legally presumed innocence of Gina’s daughter, TJ. The problem is that TJ is a 16-year-old wild child who has tangled with her mother physically and emotionally for years.
"THE HEATHENS may put one in the mind of THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER in all of the best ways... Atkins’ straightforward plotting and well-turned prose will keep you in your seat reading..."
Gina’s remains are ultimately located, and it appears that TJ is responsible for her death. TJ, her boyfriend (who also is no stranger to law enforcement), her best friend and her brother all hit the highway in a journey that takes them in fits and starts across multiple states with U.S. Marshal Lillie Virgil in pursuit. Virgil is Quinn’s friend and former deputy, but she is not quite as willing as he is to be persuaded of TJ's innocence. Quinn is not about to let a guilty party go free, but he is not entirely convinced that TJ, as problematic as she has been, committed the murder.
In THE HEATHENS, readers are given just a bit more information than the principals, so a great deal of suspense comes from whether TJ and her little band of desperados will be caught on their interstate flight and who will nab them. Virgil is no wallflower, but the actual killers are a pair of memorable characters and are capable of murdering again if it suits their needs. Things sort themselves out in one of Atkins’ best final vignettes, followed by what amounts to an intriguing prelude of what is to be expected in the next installment of the Colson saga.
THE HEATHENS may put one in the mind of THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER in all of the best ways, especially with its “innocents on the run” who are being pursued by both sides of the law. Atkins continues to pepper his narrative and dialogue with homespun and regional colloquialisms from a seemingly and hopefully bottomless well. They are worth the price of admission all by themselves, though Atkins’ straightforward plotting and well-turned prose will keep you in your seat reading, which is as it should be.
Teaser
Before he was an Army Ranger who came home to become Tibbehah County Sheriff and take down a corrupt system, Quinn Colson was a kid who got into a lot of trouble. So when juvenile delinquent TJ Byrd insists that she doesn’t know who killed her mother --- an unreliable addict who has disappeared --- Quinn is inclined to believe her. But no one else does. When she senses she’s about to take the fall for her mother’s murder, TJ, her boyfriend, her best friend and her nine-year-old brother go on the run. As Quinn’s friend and former deputy, U.S. Marshal Lillie Virgil, tracks the kids across a trail of burglaries, stolen cars and even a kidnapping, intent on bringing TJ to justice, Quinn sets out to find the truth back in Tibbehah.
Promo
Before he was an Army Ranger who came home to become Tibbehah County Sheriff and take down a corrupt system, Quinn Colson was a kid who got into a lot of trouble. So when juvenile delinquent TJ Byrd insists that she doesn’t know who killed her mother --- an unreliable addict who has disappeared --- Quinn is inclined to believe her. But no one else does. When she senses she’s about to take the fall for her mother’s murder, TJ, her boyfriend, her best friend and her nine-year-old brother go on the run. As Quinn’s friend and former deputy, U.S. Marshal Lillie Virgil, tracks the kids across a trail of burglaries, stolen cars and even a kidnapping, intent on bringing TJ to justice, Quinn sets out to find the truth back in Tibbehah.
About the Book
Sheriff Quinn Colson and his former deputy Lillie Virgil find themselves on opposite sides of a case for the first time after a woman is found dead and three delinquent teens go on the run.
Before he was an Army Ranger who came home to become Tibbehah County Sheriff and take down a corrupt system, Quinn Colson was a kid who got into trouble --- a lot of it. So when juvenile delinquent TJ Byrd insists that she doesn’t know who killed her mother --- an unreliable addict who has disappeared --- Quinn is inclined to believe her. But no one else does --- not the town, not the sheriff in a neighboring county, not her mother’s older boyfriend and certainly not Quinn’s friend and former deputy, U.S. Marshal Lillie Virgil.
The Byrd family has always been trouble, and 16-year-old TJ is known for petty theft, fighting and general hellraising. She’s also no fool, and when she senses she’s about to take the fall for her mother’s murder, TJ, her boyfriend, her best friend and her nine-year-old brother go on the run. As Lillie Virgil tracks the kids across a trail of burglaries, stolen cars and even a kidnapping, intent on bringing TJ to justice, Quinn sets out to find the truth back in Tibbehah. Someone has gone to a lot of violent trouble to make TJ and her friends the logical target of the investigation. It’s easy, and who cares about a bunch of lawless kids?
As the bloody evidence against TJ piles up, Quinn knows someone truly evil is at work here --- and that puts TJ and her friends in more danger than they can imagine.
Audiobook available, read by MacLeod Andrews
