<b>From <i>New York Times</i>-bestselling Southern crime master Ace Atkins comes a gritty, darkly comic tale of greed, violence, and unexpected redemption.</b><br> <br>Quinn Colson didn't owe his home town of Jericho, Mississippi, a damn thing. After serving for more than a decade as a U.S. Army Ranger, he'd returned, been elected sheriff, and tried to make the town and surrounding Tibbehah county a better place. He was rewarded with being voted out of office, and went back to the war zone he'd left.<br> Now, back in Jericho, trying to fix things with his still-married high school girlfriend and retired Hollywood stuntman father, he's drawn to becoming a lawman again. This time, he accepts a badge from acting Sheriff Lillie Virgil, a foul-mouthed law woman with shades of Calamity Jane. But what they must confront together is something brand-new.<br> When a former high school cheerleader is found walking a back road completely engulfed in flames, the entire state focuses on the rural county, wanting answers. The light soon shines on several people: the girl's father, a worthless drunk named Wash Jones; a pair of teenage thugs with grand ambitions to control north Mississippi; and a red-headed truck stop madam named Fannie Hathcock, who has her own problems - the Syndicate from down on the Gulf Coast has big plans for her neck of the woods.<br> As Quinn and Lillie uncover old secrets and new lies, the entire town turns against them, and they learn the most dangerous enemies may be the ones you trust most.<br> Ace Atkins "sets a new standard for Southern crime fiction," writes <i>The New York Times Book Review</i>- and, with <i>The Innocents</i>, he sets it again.
