The Killing Hills

By Chris Offutt

LONGLISTED FOR THE CWA GOLD DAGGER
Mick Hardin, a combat veteran now working as an Army CID agent, is home on a leave that is almost done. His wife is about to give birth, but they aren't getting along. His sister, newly risen to sheriff, has just landed her first murder case, and local politicians are pushing for city police or the FBI to take the case. Are they convinced she can't handle it, or is there something else at work? She calls on Mick who, with his homicide investigation experience and familiarity with the terrain, is well-suited to staying under the radar. As he delves into the investigation, he dodges his commanding officer's increasingly urgent calls while attempting to head off further murders. And he needs to talk to his wife.
The Killing Hills is a novel of betrayal - sexual, personal, within and between the clans that populate the hollers - and the way it so often shades into violence. Chris Offutt has delivered a dark, witty, and absolutely compelling novel of murder and honor, with an investigator-hero unlike any in fiction.

• Language: English
• Publisher: No Exit Press
• Release date: Jul 26, 2021
• ISBN: 9780857305053

Chris Offutt

Chris Offutt is an award-winning author and screenwriter. He worked on the HBO drama True Blood and the Showtime series Weeds. His books include Kentucky Straight, The Same River Twice, The Good Brother, Out of the Woods, and No Heroes: A Memoir of Coming Home. His work has appeared in The Best American Essays, The Best American Short Stories, and many other anthologies. He lives near Oxford, Mississippi.

Reviews for The Killing Hills

[zmagic69 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This authors books are so smooth it is nearly effortless to finish one.
The author also makes life in Kentucky hollows come alive. In some ways the area is the land that time forgot.
Entertaining book.

[cathyskye · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The booksellers at my favorite indie bookstore are responsible for making me notice Chris Offutt's The Killing Hills, and I'm glad I paid attention. Offutt's book made such an impression on me that I can't wait to read more of Mick Hardin's adventures. The setting in the Appalachian mountains of eastern Kentucky is pitch-perfect with its deep woods, steep-sided trails, and plenty of places to hide. The residents of those hills and hollers are also vividly drawn, with their clannish affiliations and long memories. They find any way they can to survive, and the choices can be on the wrong side of the law. Life is hard there. So much so that it's the only area in the United States in which the life span is shorter than it was twenty years ago.  The colloquial dialogue with its oftentimes humorous turns of phrase made me feel right at home, although if you're like my friend in Minnesota you may not cotton to the southernness of the language (she says with tongue in cheek). Don't worry, though. Offutt doesn't layer on that southern talk with a trowel, so you shouldn't be a bit confused.Mick is definitely the star of the show, and I loved following him around as he investigated the murder. His knowledge of the people and the area are so profound that, once he knew the identity of the dead woman, he knew which people to question and which ones to watch. His success in dealing with these clannish people is due in equal parts to skill, familiarity, and magic. Watching him avoid danger in the woods by using simple tricks like knowing which bird calls means all's well is a joy and put me right beside him on the page. Setting, dialogue, characters, mystery... the icing on the cake was the compassionate, intelligent way everything was wrapped up, from the solution to the murder to the strain between Hardin and his wife. I definitely need to read more of Chris Offutt's writing.

[icolford · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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 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.

[ccayne_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An atmospheric novel combining a strong sense of place, some laugh out loud scenes and characters whose past guides their present. Beautifully written, this novel is a page turner and full of surprises.

[cathygeha · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Killing Hills by Chris OffuttHill people in Kentucky have a biblical sense of law and order when it comes to family, vengeance, and family honor. An eye for an eye, a life for a life, a balancing act that some say never ceases. A murder investigation is not always required as the suspect is known as soon as a body is found BUT in the case of this story…an investigation is required and that has more than one person involved with people potentially stepping on one another’s toes. The local sheriff has politicians, the FBI, local residents and, others to wade through and a brother Mick, a CID officer on leave, to call in for consultation. This is a who done it, police procedural, and dive into small town dynamics filled with politics, , drugs, infidelity, and more. What I liked: * Mick Hardin: military veteran, CID officer, husband, brother, native to the area, home on emergency family leave, worried about his wife and their relationship, intelligent, capable, lethal, cunning, strategic thinker, and has a lot to think about and come to terms with.* Linda Hardin: Mick’s sister, sheriff, loves her town and job, seems a bit at loose ends, wonder if she is truly capable if she had to call in her brother to assist. * Johnny Boy: deputy sheriff, talker, detail oriented, smarter than he appears* Mr. Tucker: elderly gentleman, harvester of ginseng, military veteran of Korean War, more than he appears to be. * The writing and plot* The sense of local culture and use of dialect* The realness of the conflict Mick was facing in regard to his wife and the issues they had to face* Jojo the mule (poor animal), * Wondering if this might be the first book in a series…though whether it would be a series about the community and Linda as she does her job OR about Mick and his military jobs is still a mystery. Perhaps it is a one and done. What I didn’t like: * What Joe found out when he went home and talked to his wife* The way the local politicians put their own interests first * Not knowing for sure what will happen to some of the characters I invested in while reading this storyDid I enjoy this book? YesWould I read more by this author? YesThank you to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for the ARC – This is my honest review. 5 Stars