Chris Offutt

Code of the Hills by Chris Offutt
Mick Hardin #3

Stepping back into the Kentucky hill country with Mick, two years after he left, sees him drawn away from his retirement plans to once again deal with local crimes and solve murders. Great addition to the series!

What I liked:
* Mick Hardin: * retired Army CID officer, born and bred in the hills the story is set in, knows the culture, has an interesting moral compass, protective, puzzle solver, intelligent, lethal, someone I would want on my side, a bit of a loner, finds peace in the woods, a good man
* Linda Hardin: town sheriff, Mick’s sister, intelligent, professional, a bit of a loner, good leader, injured on the job in this book, wondering what her storyline will look like in the future
* Sandra: police dispatcher, divorced, seems to see Mick for who and what he is, might still be a potential love interest for Mick in the future
* Raymond: ex-marine, in relationship with JC, helps with JC’s taco truck business, an equal to Mick in many ways though more capable of maintaining a relationship
* Johnny Boy: deputy sheriff, map collector, talkative, wouldn’t mind being in a relationship, methodical, intelligent, has much to ponder
* How the community values and expectations play such a big part in the stories in this series
* The descriptions of the area and how they played a part in the story
* Police procedural aspects of the story, where they led, and how the various cases were tied up and dealt with by the end of the book
* Wondering what favors will be called in by Flowers and Shorty that Mick will one day need to repay
* Thinking about what will happen next in the series

What I didn’t like:
* Who and what I was meant not to like
* The idea of revenge and how family feuds never actually end if one person is always needing to have their death avenged

Did I enjoy this book? Yes
Would I read more in this series? Definitely

Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Press for the ARC – This is my honest review.

4-5 Stars… (mais)

After reading Chris Offutt's first Mick Hardin book, The Killing Hills, I looked forward to this second book, Shifty's Boys. Offutt has a way with language, setting, and characterization that I find impossible to resist.

Offutt's keen photographer's eye gives readers descriptive "snapshot" phrases that put them right into the Kentucky hills along with Mick Hardin and the rest of the characters. Readers see the flash of cardinals' wings and hear the breeze through the leaves of the trees. In fact, you could say that the setting is just as much a character in Shifty's Boys as the two-legged ones. The dialogue, too, makes me feel right at home, and comments such as "Them Ryans are so stuck up they'd drown in a hard rain" make me smile and think of my grandparents.

There's a bit of a Jack Reacher feeling to this book, as there was in The Killing Hills, and the plot often takes a backseat to the setting and the characters, but with the story's steady pace, I didn't mind a bit.

I felt at home with the characters. After all, how can I turn my nose up at Mick who's let Roscoe the "house snake" live under his cabin's porch for ten years when I spent a summer sharing a poolside umbrella with a black widow spider? (Mick would probably think I was the strange one.) There are characters to love in Shifty's Boys. For example, Mick's sister, Linda, the sheriff who's up for reelection. She's known (and liked and respected) in the area for arresting her own brother. There's Jacky Turner, a genuine Mr. Fix-It with a penchant for inventing things "for the good of mankind." I also liked Albin the cab driver and was sorry to see him disappear once Mick's truck was repaired.

I even found a place that I wish I could visit: the "Coffee Tree, a bookstore that sold sandwiches and yarn." I figure my patronage alone would keep that place open. Chris Offutt's Mick Hardin books are centered around some of the real-life ugliness in a hard-hit part of Kentucky, but they're not just about the bad. Through reading his stories, readers also see the natural beauty of the landscape and the humor, heart, and resourcefulness of its people. Book three, here I come.… (mais)