THE SHAMELESS by Ace Atkins

In Atkins' ninth Quinn Colson novel, on sale July 9, a pair of New York journalists arrives in Tibbehah County, Mississippi questioning the twenty-year-old apparent suicide of teenager Brandon Taylor. Competing for Sheriff Colson's attention are various criminal elements that have sprung up since supervisor Johnny Stagg has been in prison.

Ace Atkins sent me a copy of the first Colson book, The Ranger, after I interviewed him about being named to continue Robert B. Parker's Spenser in April 2010. Having been a Colson fan since then, I've seen the series naturally expand beyond Quinn and the the central case of each book. With long-running subplots and continuing characters' lives, there's less a feeling of resolution, more a feeling that what happens in the moment will reverberate in the future.

Thanks to G.P. Putnam's Sons' Katie McKee for the galley.