Shifty's Boys

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Description

Army-CID-officer-cum-unofficial-PI Mick Hardin is up against unforeseen forces who will stop at nothing in this vividly atmospheric thriller from acclaimed novelist Chris Offutt.

Chris Offutt is
a literary master across genres, and his most recent novel THE KILLING HILLS
was one of his most successful, earning him a new audience and earning
praise from the likes of The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal,
and Crime Reads. His latest book, Shifty's
Boys, is a compelling, propulsive thriller of murder and mayhem in the
hills of eastern Kentucky.Mick Hardin is home on leave,
recovering from an IED attack, when a body is found in the center of town. It's
Barney Kissick, the local heroin dealer, and the city police see it as an
occupational hazard. But when Barney's mother, Shifty, asks Mick to take a
look, it seems there's more to the killing than it seems. Mick should be
rehabbing his leg, signing his divorce papers, and getting out of town--and most
of all, staying out of the way of his sister Linda's reelection as Sheriff--but
he keeps on looking, and suddenly he's getting shot at himself.

A dark, pacy crime novel about
grief and revenge, and the surprises hidden below the surface, Shifty's Boys
is a tour de force that confirms Chris Offutt's Mick Hardin as one of the
most appealing new investigators in fiction.

Reviews

Praise for Shifty's Boys

A Deadly Pleasures Pick for Best of Southern Noir 2022

"The writing is top-notch, shot through with menace and melancholy."--Sarah Weinman, New York Times Book Review

"Righteous
Kentucky noir with top notes of Daniel Woodrell and SA Cosby. I gulped it down,
relishing the burn"--Ian Rankin

"Rich in atmospherics and a master-class in the craft of crime fiction... Offutt has created a wildly compelling private eye series full of memorable characters, drawn with an observant eye and passion for local terrain."--Dwyer Murphy, CrimeReads

"Another excellent Mick Hardin thriller set in rural eastern
Kentucky... Come for the thriller, by all means; it delivers nicely. But stay
for, and linger in, the marvelous incidentals and atmospherics: arguments about
mall names; lore about snakes and birds and mushrooms; descriptions of a local
shade-tree tinkerer's Slinky-like version of a perpetual motion machine.
Terrific characters; taut suspense. Another winner from Offutt." --Kirkus
Reviews (Starred Review)

"This is country noir at its most powerful, combining cracking
action with crystalline portraits of rough-hewn but savvy characters tragically
forced to become "retribution killers" to stop yet another cycle of
violence." --Bill Ott, Booklist (Starred Review)"Readers will appreciate the novel's respectful portrayal of the
contemporary South as they ride along with Mick on his fair-minded, almost
spiritual quest to root out the truth. Fans of contemporary small-town
mysteries will look forward to Offutt's next."--Publishers Weekly"In elegant, economical prose, Shifty's Boys is an
accomplished addition to the ranks of country noir."--Val McDermid, author of
1989"With The Killing Hills and now Shifty's Boys, Chris
Offutt has launched a fantastic and compelling new crime novel series, and as a
reader you may come to these books for the murders and the mysteries, rendered
as they are with great page-turning style and thrilling action, but there's
even more at work here. These books are also about a place and its
people, and the result is a vivid portrait infused with insight and wisdom,
humanity and affection. I eagerly await the next Mick Hardin!"--Jonathan
Ames, author of A Man Named Doll "SHIFTY'S
BOYS is a tale of vengeance that asks difficult questions about the nature and
value of honor, every line delivered with the relentless efficiency of a wolf
stripping meat from a bone. In Mick Hardin, Chris Offutt has created a complex,
brooding hero, a man whose moral code was hewn from Kentucky hill-country rock.
As his world turns darker and dirtier by the minute, once the brutal work is
done, we are left with only a few words. More Mick, please."--Christopher J.
Yates, author of Grist Mill Road"How can it be that after just two of Chris
Offutt's Mick Hardin novels I love a bunch of the characters like they were my
own family I'm not even from Kentucky. And how can it be that these books are
as thrilling and funny as a great crime show yet still exhibit the scraped,
lean vernacular sentences readers of Offutt's short fiction have come to
admire Here's hoping Hardin rides for a good long while."--Jonathan Lethem"Shifty's
Boys is an economical, richly imagined crime story . . . [A] rare rural noir
thriller." --Deadly Pleasures

"In
just two relatively short novels, Chris Offutt has made me a dedicated fan of
this series which I will eagerly read as each new episode comes out. Write
faster, Chris."--Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine

"Offutt has written a propulsive literary thriller with an intricate plot that tests Hardin's mettle throughout the book. His characters are true to the area, and his keen eye for the local setting transports the reader to Appalachia. Let's hope Offutt's hills don't change in his next Mick Hardin novel, so we can revisit Rocksalt, Kentucky, very soon."--Wayne Catan, Chapter 16

"A riveting thrill ride."--Deep South Magazine

"Offutt loves his characters enough to give them life. With them, we can grieve or laugh... Offutt's novel is replete with details that brand the humanity pictured within as real, because you can't make this stuff up."--Cathy Downs, Reviewing the Evidence

"Offutt has really hit his stride in this second
installment. I could not flip the pages fast enough."--Vick Mickunas, Book Nook

"Chris Offutt's mastery of sense of place is still in full bloom... It's a contemporary western, and in westerns primal feelings win out and revenge tastes of blood and loneliness."--James Owen, The Times (UK)

"Everyman thriller with a slice of rural noir . . . Offutt skillfully [balances] visceral description, tight dialogue and rattling action into a breakneck-paced, utterly enthralling total package."--Doug Johnstone, Big Issue (UK)

Praise for The Killing HillsA Deadly Pleasures Pick for Best of Southern Noir 2022
Summer Reading List 2021, Deep South MagazineA Times [UK] Crime Club Pick of the WeekA Times [UK] Best New Thriller for November 2021

"Sense of place also steams off the
pages of The Killing Hills . . . Pitch-perfect in its tone and dialogue,
if more interested in mood than in the business of plot, this is what Jack
Reacher wants to be when it grows up." --James Owen, The Times [UK]"The fine dark art of the noir simile springs from the amoral beauty of the Icelandic sagas, flows forward in time through the savant, poetic solecisms of Raymond Chandler, and drains into the rich, black soil of Chris Offutt's high holler novels . . . The Killing Hills is vividly evocative . . . A riveting, page-turning package."--Literary Hub"[A] work of rural noir whose characters' singular codes lead to constant surprises."--Wall Street Journal"True page-turner." --Caroline Leavitt, AARP ("5 Gripping New Thrillers")"The Killing Hills is a potent mix of magnificent prose and uncompromising honesty. It has the resonance of a murder ballad and the deeply existential themes of an epic poem. Its voice will linger in your mind long after the final page is turned."--S.A. Cosby, author of Blacktop Wasteland"A story full of feuds, rivalries, and crimes hiding in plain sight, The Killing Hills is as poignant and powerful as they come."--CrimeReads"Few writers today can boast of a body of work as wide-ranging and virtuosic as Offutt's. His novels and short stories bend genres and upend expectations . . . In all of his work, Offutt combines literary artistry with narrative momentum. The Killing Hills is no exception: A taut, gripping thriller, it also draws us deep into the lives of its troubled characters with wit, compassion, and insight . . . The same knack for propulsion, characterization, and snappy dialogue that made Chris Offutt a natural for Hollywood are on ample display in The Killing Hills. The sentences and chapters are crisp and crackling, the mood and tone dark and ominous but not devoid of humor. Put simply, the man knows how to keep the pages turning . . . The result is a novel that, like fine Kentucky bourbon, goes down easy and leaves a long, lingering burn."--Ed Tarkington, Chapter 16"What matters is how Offutt tells the tale, and it is done masterfully. . . . He cares about people, even ones who are damned to make terrible decisions, and does not inflict a fatalistic vision of the world upon us. . . . The deck is stacked, but it's in the nature of people to try anyway, damnation be damned. That's what we have in The Killing Hills, and it makes for a very entertaining read that will stay with you. I look forward to returning to these hills, or if not, at least to whatever Chris Offutt writes next." --Vautrin"Everyone should be reading Chris Offutt."--Garth Greenwell"Dark, but deeply humane. The love in this book is deep and powerful. And winsome twinkles shine through the blackness throughout, thanks in no small part to Offutt's keen ear and eye."--Smith Henderson, New York Times"Offutt impressively inhabits this impoverished, fiercely private world without condescension or romance, fashioning a lean, atmospheric story that moves fluidly between the extremes of violence and love . . . Offutt is such a measured and unexcitable stylist that the story never wallows in the grotesque . . . [A] fine homage to a pocket of the country that's as beautiful as it is prone to tragedy."--Wall Street Journal"Offutt's spare prose throws the life -- and lives -- of a tightly knit Eastern Kentucky community into sharp relief."--Daneet Steffens, Boston Globe"Offutt captures the nuances of those who call this part of eastern Kentucky home . . . Crisp dialogue, bits of humor, an evocative look at the region and a stalwart hero elevate The Killing Hills."--Oline H. Cogdill, South Florida Sun Sentinel"If I had read this in 2021 when
it came out, The Killing Hills would have been on my list of best
mysteries that year."--Deadly Pleasures Mystery MagazinePraise for Country Dark"Chris Offutt's work about mountain li

Author Bio

CHRIS OFFUTT is the author of the short-story collections Kentucky Straight and Out of the Woods, the novel The Good Brother, and three memoirs: The Same River Twice, No Heroes, and My Father, the Pornographer. His work has appeared in Best American Short Stories and Best American Essays, among many other places. He has written screenplays for Weeds, True Blood, and Treme, and has received fellowships from the Lannan and Guggenheim foundations.