THE INNOCENTS by Ace Atkins

At one time, before his service duty, Quinn Colson was the sheriff in his hometown of Jericho. Now he's back in his hometown and he just wants a little peace and quiet. His former stuntman father Jason also came home hoping to buy a piece of land and turn it into a summer resort.

Quinn doesn't waste much time getting back into the swing of things. He instantly reconnects with Anna Lee, a woman he has pursued for years, but just as he thinks that they might finally make it legal things change. Quinn also meets up with his old friend Lilly, who is now the town's sheriff. When things start to get a little hectic, Lilly talks Quinn into coming back and helping out in the sheriff's office. You see, a teenage girl has been found on the road on fire. Who would have done such a horrible thing? While Lilly has several people as suspects, she just can't pin this on anybody.

Poor Quinn, so much going on when all he wants to do is settle down.

This is the first book that I have read of Ace Atkins. I can tell you it will not be the last. Several times I thought I had figured out the mystery, but I was always wrong. This is a mystery beyond words. While there is a little romance, mpst of this was definitely a crime story. I tried several times to put a face to Quinn, but I kept changing my mind and who would play him in a movie. I could see someone like Denzel Washington, or maybe even Harrison Ford.

This book was fast paced, read in two days because I wanted to find out who done it. Once again, when I finished it, I wish I would have read slower. Watch out James Patterson, Ace Atkins is not far behind you.

From New York Times-bestselling Southern crime master Ace Atkins comes a gritty, darkly comic tale of greed, violence, and unexpected redemption. Quinn Colson didn’t owe his home town of Jericho, Mississippi, a damn thing. After serving for more than a decade as a U.S. Army Ranger, he’d returned, been elected sheriff, and tried to make the town and surrounding Tibbehah county a better place. He was rewarded with being voted out of office, and went back to the war zone he’d left. Now, back in Jericho, trying to fix things with his still-married high school girlfriend and retired Hollywood stuntman father, he’s drawn to becoming a lawman again. This time, he accepts a badge from acting Sheriff Lillie Virgil, a foul-mouthed law woman with shades of Calamity Jane. But what they must confront together is something brand-new. When a former high school cheerleader is found walking a back road completely engulfed in flames, the entire state focuses on the rural county, wanting answers. The light soon shines on several people: the girl’s father, a worthless drunk named Wash Jones; a pair of teenage thugs with grand ambitions to control north Mississippi; and a red-headed truck stop madam named Fannie Hathcock, who has her own problems – the Syndicate from down on the Gulf Coast has big plans for her neck of the woods. As Quinn and Lillie uncover old secrets and new lies, the entire town turns against them, and they learn the most dangerous enemies may be the ones you trust most. Ace Atkins “sets a new standard for Southern crime fiction,” writes The New York Times Book Review– and, with The Innocents, he sets it again.