Chris Offutt

A beautifully-written short novel set in Eastern Kentucky, in hollers near Morehead. A woman is found dead in the woods; who's responsible? The local sheriff gets help from her brother, who is home from the wars to see his pregnant wife. He's a skilled military police investigator, and he knows the area. A local politician (crooked, of course) brings aboard an FBI agent from Lexington to mess up the investigation, and an innocent young man is arrested - but the brother and sister are able to show more bring the case to a resolution of sorts.

A few things that didn't work for me - the FBI involvement seemed implausible and a little slapstick-y. The pregnant wife who had an affair was a bit of a cipher and not always well-integrated into the story. The hero is a bit too good at his job. And it was short! I suddenly realized it was nearly over, and that was a disappointment.

What was really great about the book, though, was the loving and authentic picture of a place where family relationships mean everything, where you know who you're dealing with based on who their kin are. (The one sad character, the Dopted Boy, was an outcast because he wasn't blood-related to anyone in the area, being adopted.) The sense of place extends to the natural world, beautifully described. The town of Morehead, too, is depicted in a way that shows the old town and the old ways dying off and being squeezed out and replaced by a university and a medical center. I hadn't read anything by this author before, but I will definitely read his work again. show less

I'll confess that I was drawn to this book by its cover, especially the way that the old pickup stands out like blood in snow. It offered something different and far outside my personal experience.

As soon as I started the book, I knew I'd made the right choice. I slid straight into the narrative, watching an old man walking a hill in the Kentucky Appalachians in the early morning, searching for ginseng and discovering a body. The text was crisp and low key but I was already intrigued. Why show more was an eighty-one-year-old man both the oldest man in his community and the only old man he knew? What did that say about mortality rates in his community? Why would a man searching for wild ginseng habitually carry a revolver? And what kind of man has, as his first concern after finding a body, the transplantation of a young ginseng plant to keep it from being trampled by the police that he would soon have to call?

I was barely one page in and already I knew I was somewhere quite different from my normal Brit or US big-city crime fiction environments. show less

Very well-written, in my opinion, & very much captures the environment & personalities of southern hill people. (This is Kentucky; I have relatives from the hills of North Carolina. There were pieces/phrases/moments that just felt so familiar -- a vestigial stirring from extended family & past generations.) I think it is a fair portrayal of the pros & cons of the people & the place.

I would be curious about the audiobook because even the cadence of the writing made me imagine people speaking show more slowly (in the stereotypical southern manner). I don't know if I could just hear the wording in my head because of the way he phrased things or what.

I really liked this book. Recommended if you're looking for modern noir. show less

Anyone who hasn't feasted upon one of Chris Offutt's Mick Hardin novels needs to rectify the situation. These lean mean books immerse readers in the world of eastern Kentucky and the ways of the people who live there. In The Reluctant Sheriff, we also watch Johnny Boy Tolliver (last seen in the previous book, Code of the Hills) adapt to life on the French island of Corsica.

The stories ring true, and they can be explosive. Moreover, Mick Hardin is a character who's always looked after show more everyone else while ignoring his own needs. This series of books shows Mick becoming more self-aware. Excellent, fast-paced stories, a nuanced main character, and in-depth knowledge of a culture most of us know nothing about... all these things make Offutt's series a must-read, but there is one key element that I haven't mentioned yet. What's that? The descriptions of the landscape and nature. Mick Hardin is firmly rooted in the Kentucky hills. He knows all the trees, the plants, the animals. He can gauge what's going on in the woods by which birds are singing. This inclusion of the natural world draws me right into the story.

And another draw? Offutt's power of description. "...he was lonely as the last leaf on a tree in winter." "That woman is tough as woodpecker lips." I love those!

By reading these books, I've joined Mick Hardin in his journey to turn his back on the past and embrace the future. It's a privilege to be able to be a part of it.

(Review copy courtesy of the publisher and Net Galley) show less