One of my favorite books of 2014 was a golden piece of border noir titled BAD COUNTRY. It was the debut novel of CB McKenzie, a dark and rich piece of work that still bounces through my head at regular intervals. I eagerly have been awaiting its successor, and now that BURN WHAT WILL BURN has been published, I can tell you that it was more than worth the wait, even as it moves in what initially seems to be a very different direction.

"It is McKenzie’s steely and rough poetic prose that ultimately carries the day, notwithstanding the powerful mystery that pumps the blood through this otherwise character-driven work."

The book shares its predecessor’s preoccupation with quirky but realistic characters, the type of very real folks one normally encounters out of the corner of the eye before moving on. Chalk it up to a lizard-brain impulse for self-preservation; too much exposure to some of these people and one would go insane, if one survived the encounter at all. Bob Reynolds, who narrates BURN WHAT WILL BURN, is such a survivor. In the novel’s early 1980s setting, Reynolds is the scion of a wealthy oil family who lives modestly and carefully in Poe County in rural Arkansas, where he spends his days writing and drinking (with an accent on the latter) while interacting to various degrees with the local townsfolk. His discovery of a body in Little Piney Creek near his home sets off a chain of events that reverberate through the merchants of the town as well as its history and law enforcement before circling back to Reynolds and the local sheriff, who is not one of Reynolds’ biggest fans.

Like everyone in Poe County, Reynolds seems to have historical and hysterical ties to the local environs of one form or another. Still, he is regarded as an outsider, given his relatively wealthy standing, which is belied by his simple lifestyle. The book is overrun with stereotypes, from Reynolds’ no-account neighbors and a local fire-and-brimstone preacher to a younger hot-to-trot woman with skid marks on her heels and an undefinable attractiveness that causes Reynolds no end of difficulty. He cannot help but yield to the temptation, even as he practically sees his setup, pratfall and potential demise coming from miles away. BURN WHAT WILL BURN is also shot through with unforgettable symbolism, from a black widow spider left peacefully to life in a mailbox (you need nothing else to tell you that Reynolds is not quite right) to a pit full of snakes behind the churchyard.

The body that Reynolds discovers at the beginning of the book is by no means the first one to be found within these pages or within the boundaries of Poe County. While not as dark or as violent as BAD COUNTRY, there are enough corpses and questions to keep any reader of redneck noir reasonably happy. It is McKenzie’s steely and rough poetic prose that ultimately carries the day, notwithstanding the powerful mystery that pumps the blood through this otherwise character-driven work. You will never forget anyone in BURN WHAT WILL BURN and will anticipate his next offering. As will I.