“Yeah, Batey said. But the devil's got his horns in this mess too. And this isn't something we can outrun.
No it ain't, Fielding said. Only way this ends is if the devil loses.”

Why would I need to know in how many squares a guy is folding a piece of paper? Oh, to distract me from the darkest fucking thing in the world that could happen a few sentences later. Bahr likes to snap his fingers next to your right ear, “pay attention” he says, so he can give you a chilly wet willy with the other hand in your left. Except, he wouldn’t use quotation marks, which ended up being the reason for 90% of the 2star and below reviews. Amateurs. “Stag” thrived on a simplistic and ultra-dark story concept, satisfying pacing, and abrupt execution.

The hyper-masculine tone that regularly twines around this flavor of crime novel was a heavy and somewhat tiring presence that the author may have intended to cut with the soft, septuagenarian pondering of a retired sheriff turned lazy cowpoke. I’m sure the masculinity foils were intended, but, like most crime novels, women were ill-represented and only made useful for male character development.

3/5 At times the whole Cormac McCarthy-Cohen Brothers-True Detective circlejerk was derivative but if it’s an atmospheric, gritty noir-thriller on the lid…I’m gonna read it.