***GUARDIAN BEST CRIME AND THRILLERS OF 2023*** THE TIMES – THRILLER OF THE MONTH***
*** MAIL ON SUNDAY – BEST NEW FICTION*** FINANCIAL TIMES – BEST NEW CRIME BOOKS***
‘A crackling good police procedural….fresh and exhilarating’ STEPHEN KING
‘Gripping’ MICHAEL CONNELLY
‘Titus Crown is one of the most compelling characters I’ve read in a long time.’ STEVE CAVANAGH
A BLACK SHERIFF. A SERIAL KILLER.
AND A SMALL TOWN READY TO COMBUST.
Titus Crown is the first Black sheriff in the history of Charon County, Virginia. In recent decades, Charon has had only two murders. After years of working as an FBI agent, no one knows better than Titus that while his hometown might seem like a land of moonshine, cornbread, and honeysuckle, secrets always fester under the surface.
But a year to the day after Titus’s election, a school teacher is killed by a former student. The student is then fatally shot by Titus’s deputies.
As Titus investigates the shootings, he unearths terrible crimes, and a serial killer who has been hiding in plain sight, haunting the dirt lanes and woodland clearings of Charon. With the killer’s possible connections to a local church and the town’s harrowing history weighing on him, Titus tries to project confidence about closing the case while concealing a painful secret from his own past. At the same time, he also has to contend with a far-right group that wants to hold a parade in celebration of the town’s Confederate history.
Charon is Titus’s home and his heart. But where faith and violence meet, there will be a reckoning.
‘Richly textured, this is elegant, fierce storytelling at its absolute best.’ DAILY MAIL
‘A distinctive, thrilling new voice in crime writing…will linger long after you’ve closed the book’ DAILY EXPRESS
‘American crime fiction has found its future and his name is S.A. Cosby’ DENNIS LEHANE
‘One of the most important new voices in crime fiction. I won’t read a better book this year. Incredible.’ M. W. CRAVEN
‘A powerful crime thriller that pulls no punches’ VASEEM KHAN
‘An uncompromising, blistering Southern Gothic with a compelling, beautifully drawn protagonist in Titus Crown. Cosby’s writing sings.’ MASON CROSS
*** MAIL ON SUNDAY – BEST NEW FICTION*** FINANCIAL TIMES – BEST NEW CRIME BOOKS***
‘A crackling good police procedural….fresh and exhilarating’ STEPHEN KING
‘Gripping’ MICHAEL CONNELLY
‘Titus Crown is one of the most compelling characters I’ve read in a long time.’ STEVE CAVANAGH
A BLACK SHERIFF. A SERIAL KILLER.
AND A SMALL TOWN READY TO COMBUST.
Titus Crown is the first Black sheriff in the history of Charon County, Virginia. In recent decades, Charon has had only two murders. After years of working as an FBI agent, no one knows better than Titus that while his hometown might seem like a land of moonshine, cornbread, and honeysuckle, secrets always fester under the surface.
But a year to the day after Titus’s election, a school teacher is killed by a former student. The student is then fatally shot by Titus’s deputies.
As Titus investigates the shootings, he unearths terrible crimes, and a serial killer who has been hiding in plain sight, haunting the dirt lanes and woodland clearings of Charon. With the killer’s possible connections to a local church and the town’s harrowing history weighing on him, Titus tries to project confidence about closing the case while concealing a painful secret from his own past. At the same time, he also has to contend with a far-right group that wants to hold a parade in celebration of the town’s Confederate history.
Charon is Titus’s home and his heart. But where faith and violence meet, there will be a reckoning.
‘Richly textured, this is elegant, fierce storytelling at its absolute best.’ DAILY MAIL
‘A distinctive, thrilling new voice in crime writing…will linger long after you’ve closed the book’ DAILY EXPRESS
‘American crime fiction has found its future and his name is S.A. Cosby’ DENNIS LEHANE
‘One of the most important new voices in crime fiction. I won’t read a better book this year. Incredible.’ M. W. CRAVEN
‘A powerful crime thriller that pulls no punches’ VASEEM KHAN
‘An uncompromising, blistering Southern Gothic with a compelling, beautifully drawn protagonist in Titus Crown. Cosby’s writing sings.’ MASON CROSS
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Reviews
Only S.A. Cosby could bring poetry to the darkness. A dark, disturbing and gripping masterpiece that reaches into the depths of your soul.
PRAISE FOR S. A. COSBY:
Raw, powerful and pacey, Razorblade Tears more than fulfils the promise of Cosby's superb debut
An excellent, gritty novel about how eventually, all sins must be reckoned with...The action is nonstop and Titus has real depth...Layered. Dark. True.
Cosby's talents for pungent dialogue and Chandler-esque phrase-making were praised in his previous novel,.. and they're evident again in this pulsating follow-up
It's a rare trick to combine violence with social commentary, but Cosby pulls it off
S. A. Cosby's novels always hit the grand slam of crime fiction; unstoppable momentum, gripping intrigue and deep character with a hard and telling look at culture and society. I hesitate to call All The Sinners Bleed his masterpiece because he has many more books to write and they only get better and better. Cosby no doubt carries the mantle of Faulkner with him as he uses the crime story to show us where we are and how far we still need to go. Sheriff Titus Crown lives in these pages and your heart. He's a character for the ages
The very definition of a white-knuckle ride
Utterly brilliant....Beautiful, violent, operatic, relevant, poignant, gripping & important. Masterful.
Cosby's growing body of work represents a muscular take on race relations in America. In All The Sinners Bleed, he again forces the reader to dwell on how prejudice lingers and shapes contemporary society, particularly in America's south. A powerful crime thriller that pulls no punches.
A top-notch tale about the dark side of small towns and racial politics
Exemplary
One of the most muscular, distinctive, grab-you-by-both-ears voices in American crime fiction.