19 reviews for:

The Sinners

Ace Atkins

3.72 AVERAGE


Quinn is getting married while drug traffickers begin a war

Ace Atkins: did you really write this book?

Disappointment dogged me through the last two Quinn Colson books. This one, The Sinners immersed me in a 'fashion show' that filled space – imagine every style of t-shirt, complete with meme of the moment, that didn't advance the story line, bad language that didn't advance the characters, and a few missing words/edits a good proofreader should have caught. I'm still a fan, just disappointed.

Full review: http://www.bookconvos.com/2019/04/ace-atkins-sinners-biggest-sin-was-book.html

When you are reading series and it gets to the point where you are waiting for the next book - sometimes you forget things. Looking at Goodreads, I thought it showed I had read the first seven books in the Quinn Colson series.

This was a solid book, but I didn't recall some of the characters and events. I chalked that up to the years and a less than perfect memory. On going to enter this review, I realize I had the seventh book marked as "To Read" and not "Read". I bet I'll figure out a lot more about Maggie when I read that one.

Still a fine book with some interesting characters. I know/have known many people kind of like the Pritchards. Atkins knows his rednecks.
adventurous challenging mysterious medium-paced

Quinn Colson has little depth. He’s definitely not charismatic. This series is all about the bad guys having charm. I actually think I may me more interesting than Quinn and I’m boring.

Do you have a series that’s so deeply enjoyable to you, reading it’s like slipping on a good, comfortable pair of jeans or drinking something tasty out of a favorite glass? That’s the Quinn Colson series for me.

Eight books in and there’s not much differentiating one from another, this one included. But man, I really do enjoy these. Atkins creates great characters and he does such a fantastic job building this setting. Every story adds a layer to fictional Tibbehah County and I’m here for it.

This one sidelines Quinn more than most; here he’s just doing occasional cop interviews and planning to get married. Instead, we get the machinations of the criminals and it’s a lot of fun. Even if the “bad guy returns after all these years” trope is getting tired, I still enjoy how Atkins writes it. I also really love Fannie Hathcock and the dirty dealings of southern gangsters from Memphis down the Mississippi.

At the conclusion of the last one, I was worried the book would miss Lillie Virgil, who I often found to be a compelling character. But it’s fine here. In fact, one less character who requires scenes probably helped streamline the narrative a bit.

I started these books just before the pandemic hit. Said pandemic has led me to binge the first eight…and I picked up number nine today from my library. Ten just hit stores. I can’t believe I’m already so close to catching up on this series. One of my favorite crime fiction ones of all-time.

3.5 stars.

In The Sinners, the eighth installment in Ace Atkins' Quinn Colson series, a feud between two gangs who traffic drugs spawns murder and violence.

Just as Sheriff Quinn Colson is poised to make a big change in his personal life, Heath Pritchard (who was arrested by Quinn's predecessor and uncle, Hamp Beckett) is released from prison. Heath  is ready to resume the pot operation that landed him in jail and he shows up unannounced on the family farm where his nephews Tyler and Cody currently live. Tyler and Cody are dirt-track racers who have continued the family tradition of growing and selling pot and they are about to find themselves in a mess of trouble with brothel owner, Fannie Hathcock and the Dixie Mafia's goons.

Just as Quinn is attempting to sort out what happened to Fannie's right hand man, Ordeem Davis, Colson's best friend Boom Kimbrough discovers the trucking firm he is working for is involved in drug and human trafficking. With an all out war about to explode in Tibbehah County, Quinn  requests help from the DEA who sends agent Nat Wilkins and the USMarshalls which reunites him with his former co-worker Lillie Virgil. Will Colson find justice for Ordeem Davis?  Will Boom find the evidence he needs to take down the syndicate that is trafficking drugs and women?

This latest addition to Quinn Colson series has plenty of action, but Quinn and his crime fighting cohorts are firmly in the background as the rival factions wrestle for control. Cody and Tyler are more interested in their upcoming races while newly released Heath spews racist rhetoric as he tries to convince his nephews the business rightly belongs to him. Fannie manipulates events behind the scenes to rid herself of the two lowlifes who are now her "partners".  Boom wants nothing more than give up his trucking job, but Nat convinces him it is in everyone's best interest for him to go undercover to find the evidence the DEA needs to take down the organization.

The Sinners is an action-packed novel that is interesting but slow-paced. With the focus on the warring factions, the good guys do not have much on-page time until the novel's conclusion. Fans will enjoy this latest outing and readers will be eager for the next release in the series since the novel's ending heavily foreshadows what Quinn will most likely face in book nine of Ace Atkins' Quinn Colson series.

Gritty police procedural set in what one character calls "the ass-crack of America," rural northern Mississippi. Colorful regional language and a variety of oddball characters give this book a strong sense of place, but the plot is unremarkable, which I consider a pretty important aspect of a detective novel. Enjoyable and fast read nonetheless.

Reading a Quinn Colson novel is like putting on an old pair of comfortable shoes. A lot of old friends are back, a few new people, and in this one, a bit more excitement perhaps.

As usual, we have a lot of dumb rednecks, including one just out of prison that is the worst, even to his family. He even picked fights with the biker gang and the drug connections. But most of the bad guys weren't 100% bad, and some may have turned out OK in a different town with a different family. But they were all pretty interesting if not totally sane.

The only reason I didn't read this sooner is because it's the last one so far in the series, and I didn't want wait too long for the next one, which I'm looking forward to. Maybe I should start over.

Well, this was another great Quinn Colson novel. And the teasers for the next sound even better.