Chris Offutt

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

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

I have been appreciating Chris Offutt's skill in characterization, in describing the landscape, and in acquainting his readers with the people and culture of the hills and hollers of eastern Kentucky. There is such a thing as the code of the hills, and it's brought to life here, even in the smallest of details such as the proper chair to sit in when visiting the home of a deceased man. Mick knows all these things, and readers can trust him to lead them through each situation.

I love Offutt's show more descriptive and often poetic language that can bring rural life into sharp focus: "...it scratched around in the back of his mind like a rat in a corn crib" or "...the junk store had been run by a man who was legendary for locking customers inside until they bought something." Having grown up in a small farm town, I'm familiar with playing in corn cribs (after being told not to), and of the "colorful" characters that can be found in rural communities. (Just ask me about Maxine.) I've also grown accustomed to taking note of the birds that make appearances in each of his books: indigo buntings, sparrows, crows, blue jays, owls, mourning doves, meadowlarks... Offutt has a way of bringing me right into the landscape so that I'm walking the hills right along with Mick.

Code of the Hills has a strong mystery and an even stronger setting and cast of characters. If you're the type of armchair sleuth who enjoys learning about out-of-the-way places and other cultures, make the acquaintance of Mick Hardin. show less

After a long absence, hard-boiled combat veteran Mick Hardin has taken leave from the army to return to his eastern-Kentucky home and visit with his pregnant wife. Since they’re not getting along, Mick is holed up in his grandfather’s cabin deep in the woods, where he’s taking some time to consider his own future and that of his troubled marriage. Mick, who is now an agent for the army’s Criminal Investigation Division (CID), does not know how to deal with the fact that the baby show more might not be his and is drinking himself stupid every night. When a woman’s body is discovered in a remote “holler,” Mick’s sister Linda, the town’s new sheriff, who’s facing political pressure to hand the case over to the FBI, asks him to conduct an impromptu investigation. She’s worried that the victim’s family will not share what they know with the police and instead find an opportunity to dispense their own form of justice. Mick is familiar with the territory and the people—a proud lot steeped in a tradition of self-sufficiency and deep mistrust of authority. He speaks their language and knows ways to get them to lower their guard and give up their secrets, and his efforts quickly uncover some unsettling local truths. But The Killing Hills is more than a simple whodunit. About midway through, the primary focus of Offutt’s gripping novel shifts ever so slightly to Mick’s domestic and professional tribulations. It turns out that Mick’s been avoiding calls from his CO: he’s allowed his leave to expire and is now considered AWOL and subject to arrest. Chris Offutt does not waste words: his prose is succinct and to the point. His descriptions effectively set the scene, his dialogue is crisp and curt and often very funny. There is a mystery at its core, but this tautly written story of revenge and betrayal is also richly imagined and deeply human. show less