After reading Chris Offutt's first Mick Hardin book, The Killing Hills, I looked forward to this second book, Shifty's Boys. Offutt has a way with language, setting, and characterization that I find impossible to resist.

Offutt's keen photographer's eye gives readers descriptive "snapshot" phrases that put them right into the Kentucky hills along with Mick Hardin and the rest of the characters. Readers see the flash of cardinals' wings and hear the breeze through the leaves of the trees. In fact, you could say that the setting is just as much a character in Shifty's Boys as the two-legged ones. The dialogue, too, makes me feel right at home, and comments such as "Them Ryans are so stuck up they'd drown in a hard rain" make me smile and think of my grandparents.

There's a bit of a Jack Reacher feeling to this book, as there was in The Killing Hills, and the plot often takes a backseat to the setting and the characters, but with the story's steady pace, I didn't mind a bit.

I felt at home with the characters. After all, how can I turn my nose up at Mick who's let Roscoe the "house snake" live under his cabin's porch for ten years when I spent a summer sharing a poolside umbrella with a black widow spider? (Mick would probably think I was the strange one.) There are characters to love in Shifty's Boys. For example, Mick's sister, Linda, the sheriff who's up for reelection. She's known (and liked and respected) in the area for arresting her own brother. There's Jacky Turner, a genuine Mr. Fix-It with a penchant for inventing things "for the good of mankind." I also liked Albin the cab driver and was sorry to see him disappear once Mick's truck was repaired.

I even found a place that I wish I could visit: the "Coffee Tree, a bookstore that sold sandwiches and yarn." I figure my patronage alone would keep that place open. Chris Offutt's Mick Hardin books are centered around some of the real-life ugliness in a hard-hit part of Kentucky, but they're not just about the bad. Through reading his stories, readers also see the natural beauty of the landscape and the humor, heart, and resourcefulness of its people. Book three, here I come. ( )

This author is a fantastic story teller. You really have to read The Killing Hills first as this is closely tied to that book. If you do then this book really reads more like a continuation of that book. ( )

mentions Bea Day Plumbing on p. 312

Shifty’s Boys by Chris Offutt
Mick Hardin #2

Excellent and a perfectly written second book in a wonderful series. I loved book one and loved this one two.

What I liked:
* Mick Hardin: Army CID officer, born and bred in the hills the story is set in, knows the culture, has strong feelings, interesting moral compass, injured and healing, there for those he cares about, intelligent, lethal, someone I would want on my side, intriguing, want to know more about him.
* Raymond Kissick: Oldest brother, ex-marine, home for brothers’ funerals, loving son, has secrets, intelligent, deadly, intriguing
* Linda Hardin: Mick’s sister, sheriff running for election, complex, hope to see more of her in the future
* Deputy Johnny Boy Tolliver: talker, detailed, good man and great supporting character
* Sandy: divorced, dispatcher, part of the community, wonder if she is a love interest or a passing moment in time for one of the characters
* The writing, pacing, setting, and plot
* That I was drawn in more and more as I read
* The way the clues were eked out to present the bigger picture
* Mick’s ability to find answers then keep safe those he cared for…mostly
* The shades of gray and how they played into the story
* That it was easy to dislike the bad guys
* It seemed believable and real
* Hoping that there will be a third book in the series

What I didn’t like:
* Who and what I was meant not to like
* Knowing that there are crimes and criminals out there like the ones in this book

Did I enjoy this book? Yes
Would I read more in this series? Definitely

Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars ( )

Shifty’s Boys by Chris Offutt picks up a bit after The Killing Hills and begins with the local taxi driver, Albin, finding a body. At first, he thinks he has found somebody passed out from drinking way too much. Has happened before in Rocksalt, Kentucky, so he is not very concerned as he sees the odd shape up against the fence in the parking lot of the local Western Auto. It is only when he gets out of the cab and walks towards the male figure, he realizes that it is not mud on the man’s clothes, but blood.

Mick Harden is home on medical leave thanks to an IED attack that nearly killed him. It didn’t. Getting divorced, once he signs the paperwork, might kill him. The pain pill addiction he has might as well. Staying at his mom’s house, now owned by his sister, Linda Hardin, the sheriff, might also kill him. While she cares about him, they don’t get along that well in the best of times, With him home on medical leave and dealing with pain, grief, and trauma, and her running for election, these certainly are not the best of times.

He does not know it, but he really needs a project to do while he continues his painful rehab for his leg injury. Mick thinks too much and he needs something to do that will fully occupy his mind as he works to rehab the leg, wean himself off the painkillers, and deal with moving forward.

That project will soon be investigating the death at Western Auto on behalf of Mrs. Kissick. It was her son, Barney, who was found dead. While Mick and Mrs. Kissick, also known as “Shifty,” have history and were not on very good terms the last time they spoke, she needs help. She wants Mick because she knows that his being a miliary cop will come in handy as the case is stagnated.

Local police know that drugs probably were involved, but beyond that, they have zero clues or any ideas as to what happened. Shifty knows full well that drugs might have been involved as that is the family business. She also knows that it was not a drug deal gone wrong, like the local police think, as Barney never did business in the city. They had a rule about that.

The city cops figure a drug dealer got what he had coming and can’t be bothered to do much at all to find the killer or killers. Shifty is enraged, has money, and wants to hire Mick to find out who did it and why. She figures Mick, who grew up with her sons, will be able to do so. Mick agrees to poke around a little bit and soon figures out that there is a lot going on in Shifty’s Boys.

While this read does tie into the first book, The Killing Hills, this one easily could be read as a standalone. A complicated read full of interesting characters that are doing what they need to do survive, there is a lot of grey here in terms of morality and temporary alliances. As in the previous read, the author’s obvious love for the land and the people of the region comes through loud and clear.
Like The Killing Hills, Shifty’s Boys is well worth your time.

My reading copy came by way of a digital ARC from NetGalley.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2022 ( )