The Broken Place is a fairly decent thriller by Ace Atkins and features Sheriff Quinn Colson of Tibbehah County Mississippi.
Colson is a former United States Army Ranger who returns home and finds that corruption and murder has taken root in the town of Jericho. Colson is elected sheriff and attempts to bring some actual order to his home county. He is the right man for the job, but a lot of wrong people still find their way into his town.
This novel starts off with a couple of dangerous convicts escaping and heading to Colson’s county to find a former prison mate who claims to have been reformed. Quinn’s sister has fallen for a local preacher who was recently pardoned after a murder conviction. The two fugitives believe that this preacher, Jamey Dixon, has stolen money hid away from a previous robbery they committed. The sheriff her to protect his family as well as the community from the murderous havoc these fugitives are willing to bring. Not only that, but a storm is also brewing which will bring a tornado tearing through the county. Colson also finds that he may not be able to rely on the integrity of some of the other law enforcement agents getting in on the manhunt.
Ace Atkins is probably best known for taking over the continuation of the Spenser series of novels after the death of Robert B. Parker. He has this Quinn Colson series out there which does have an interesting set-up. Quinn Colson is not that unusual of a protagonist in these tough guy thrillers. Colson is predictably stoic and practical but also strangely reassuring in the midst of chaos. He manages to not totally lose his edge even when his sister is threatened.
Other than the setting, Atkins is not really breaking new ground, but the novel is still interesting. The main villain is a killer named Esau Davis, and he carries a complicated moral compass at times which does make him interesting most of the time.
I do like Colson’s style when interacting with some of the shifty local political figures in the story. There’s a pretty loathsome creature named Johnny Stagg, who makes a pretty engaging foil for Colson. Stagg is the local crime lord with political clout who has a sort of strange, sly courage when he has to contend with Esau as well.
There were a few interesting twists and turns, and Colson is definitely a guy one wants during a crisis. Too bad he’s a fictional character. I also liked the open question as whether or not Jamey Dixon was truly redeemed man or not. Not every question the story raises has an easy resolution, and it’s good that Atkins is willing to take that approach in this particular series.
London has no shortage of crime and corruption, but Sherlock Holmes is there as usual to root that out. This time, author Sam Siciliano has assigned him to look into the matter of Deathly Relics.
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