Shifty's Boys: Times Thriller of the Month

By Chris Offutt

Army-cop-turned-small-town-investigator Mick Hardin returns to the Kentucky hills in this second vividly atmospheric thriller from acclaimed literary crime novelist Chris Offutt

Mick Hardin is an Army CID officer home on leave, recovering from an IED attack and flirting with prescription painkillers, 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.

PRAISE FOR THE KILLING HILLS

'Pitch-perfect in tone, this is what Jack Reacher wants to be when it grows up' - TIMES & SUNDAY TIMES (Thrillers of the Year)

'Wonderfully atmospheric thriller' - MAIL ON SUNDAY

'If Lee Child and Daniel Woodrell collaborated on a hillbilly noir, the result would probably read a lot like this: tough, laconic, emotionally engaging and blackly funny, The Killing Hills makes for a very satisfying read' - IRISH TIMES (Crime Books of the Year)

'A riveting example of Rural Noir' - TIMES & SUNDAY TIMES CRIME CLUB (Pick of the Week)

'One hopes Offutt will bring Hardin back; he is a hell of a character!' - CRIME TIME (Book of the Month)

• Language: English
• Publisher: No Exit Press
• Release date: Jul 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9780857305299

Chris Offutt

Chris Offutt is the author of the short-story collections Kentucky Straight and Out of the Woods, the novels The Good Brother, Country Dark and The Killing Hills, 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.