Sunday, June 29, 2025

Review of "The Heathens," by Ace Atkins

 Review of

The Heathens, by Ace Atkins, ISBN 9780593328408

Five out of five stars

Atkins outside the Parker box

 My familiarity with the writings of Ace Atkins has previously been restricted to his stories that are a continuation of the characters created by Robert B. Parker. I have been impressed by his work in this area Atkins does a good job expressing the personalities in ways very similar to Parker.

 In this book Atkins weaves a story packed with supporting characters that are ruthless, single-minded, a whole lot of quirky, afraid of facing the world, rebellious, intelligent, single-minded and determined to discover the truth.

 The main characters, if there really is such a thing, are teenage delinquent TJ Byrd and Tibbehah County Sheriff Quin Colson. When TJ’s mother is murdered and her dismembered body is found in a nearby shed, such is the nature of TJ’s wildness that she is the prime suspect in the minds of nearly everyone.  Knowing this, TJ teams up with her boyfriend, best female friend and with her nine-year-old brother, they hit the road with U. S. Marshall Lillie Virgil in pursuit. They travel across several states.

 The boyfriend is an expert at hotwiring cars, and they find some assistance with one of his relatives. While this is in many ways a road story, there are many flashbacks to the characters at their point of origin, for that is where the original crime will be resolved. The characters there are generally criminals from the brutal murderers to the almost hapless con artist.

 There are unusual twists and turns as TJ and her group travel. They encounter some very bad actors along the way yet manage to find enough resources to continue until there is the inevitable climactic events where TJ and her band end up as well as the resolution at their point of origin.

 Even though the story follows several threads, they are well interconnected, so there is no sense of any of the characters and their exploits being unnecessary. The story is set in the modern world, TJ and her band are savvy social media users. This aspect is also very well done.

 I found the story to be an intense page-turner. You root for TJ and her group to survive as well as focus on the actions of Sheriff Colson as he follows several threads that converge on an explanation of what really happened with TJ and her mother. This is clearly in the pure Atkins voice as he demonstrates his ability to create and exploit characters outside the Parker universe.