By: S. A. Cosby
Narrator: Adam Lazarre-White
ISBN: 9781250897626
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Publication Date: 06/06/2023
Format: Audiobook
My Rating: 5 Stars
“Fresh and exhilarating. . . Cosby keeps his eye on the story and the pedal to the metal.” ―Stephen King, The New York Times Book Review
A Black sheriff. A serial killer. A small town ready to combust.
The new novel from New York Times bestselling and Los Angeles Times Book Prize-winning author S. A. Cosby, "one of the most muscular, distinctive, grab-you-by-both-ears voices in American crime fiction.” ―Washington Post.
“An atmospheric pressure cooker.” ―People
Titus Crown is the first Black sheriff in the history of Charon County, Virginia. In recent decades, quiet Charon has had only two murders. But after years of working as an FBI agent, Titus knows better than anyone that while his hometown might seem like a land of moonshine, cornbread, and honeysuckle, secrets always fester under the surface.
Then a year to the day after Titus’s election, a school teacher is killed by a former student and the student is 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 projects 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.
Powerful and unforgettable, All the Sinners Bleed confirms S. A. Cosby as “one of the most muscular, distinctive, grab-you-by-both-ears voices in American crime fiction” (The Washington Post).
Amazon.com Review
An Amazon Best Book of June 2023: S. A. Cosby's All the Sinners Bleed is a full tilt Southern Gothic murder mystery that draws on race, religion, politics, and even small town policing in the modern age. Your common or garden variety thriller could collapse under the weight of all that social commentary, but that's Cosby's signature: like Michael Connelly with his strict adherence to police procedures, or Lee Child with his forensic accounts of hand-to-hand combat, Cosby skillfully uses his characters to show what he wants readers to see, rather than tell them. And Titus Crown, the first Black Sheriff of Charon County, is one of his most skillfully etched characters yet. His strong moral compass compels him to try to clean up his hometown's bigoted police force. But when his investigation into a school shooting ends up pointing at a serial killer hiding in plain sight, it's a tussle with demons of many stripes in this complex and atmospheric thriller. —Vannessa Cronin, Amazon Editor
My Review
Southern master storyteller S.A. Cosby returns, following Blacktop Wasteland (2020) and Razorblade Tears (2021), both optioned for film, returns with his latest Southern Noir page-turner, ALL THE SINNERS BLEED. A riveting cat-and-mouse twisted game between a White religious killer and the first Black sheriff of a small rural Virginia town.
Titus Crown was born in Charon County, VA, founded in bloodshed and darkness, literally and figuratively. A former FBI agent, he returns to the Chesapeake Bay area to take care of his father.
Recently elected Sheriff Titus Crown is on the case —justice and vengeance—White supremacists, racists, bigots, and murderers.
He becomes Charon's first Black Sheriff and deals with the usual crimes. However, on the anniversary of Titus's election, a former student walks into the local school and shoots Mr. Spearman, a white teacher, in the classroom before being shot by his deputies.
The shooter and the victim are connected to abuses targeting Black children. After they get into Spearman's phone, there are photos and videos, and in addition, there is a third masked man, and the madman is still out there—a mysterious serial killer on the loose consisting of gruesome crimes involving Scripture and religion.
Seven Black children had disappeared from the area over the past several years. Things get complicated and intense— tension turns to action-packed high adrenaline. From hate and racism, religious connections to a church, and messages carved in their bodies.
~Titus's ex enters the picture to interview him for her true crime podcast.
~A far-right group is pushing for a parade to celebrate the town's Confederate history.
~A secret from Titus's past haunts him.
~The bodies pile up, and the killer is taunting Titus. Titus has his work cut out to attain justice for the victims and restore the town.
ALL THE SINNERS BLEED is rich in place and character. Razor-sharp, gritty, intelligent, emotional, a riveting Southern rural, small-town police procedural/crime thriller. From family, trauma, grief, violence, injustice, and faith.
Dark and complex, beautifully written with lyrical prose. Thought-provoking, action-packed, and highly entertaining. Southern fiction at its finest. My first book by the author, and I look forward to reading his backlist.
AUDIOBOOK: I read the e-book and listened to the audiobook by Adam Lazarre-White for an intense Southern Gothic murder mystery that blends race, politics, religion, and small-town procedurals. The performance was outstanding, and I highly recommend the audiobook.
@JudithDColins | #JDCMustReadBooks
Pub Date: June 6, 2023
My Rating: 5 Stars
Praise
“The body count is high and the action pretty much nonstop. . . A crackling good police procedural. . . Cosby delivers a fine climax. Then, in an epilogue, he serves up a final treat that’s worth the whole trip. . . Fresh and exhilarating.”
―New York Times Book Review, Stephen King
“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.”
―Michael Connelly, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Desert Star
“Riveting. . . What elevates this book is how Cosby weaves politically charged salient issues ― race, religion, policing ― through the prism of a serial murder investigation and the perspective of one of the most memorable heroes in contemporary crime fiction. . . Deeply moving and memorable.”
―Washington Post
“On the basis of four novels, each better than the last (andAll the Sinners Bleed the best of them all), it’s fairly easy to say that American crime fiction has found its future and his name is S.A. Cosby.”
―Dennis Lehane, New York Times bestselling author of Small Mercies
“Cosby vaults his own high bar. . .His most deeply resonant, timely and timeless novel to date.”
―Los Angeles Times
“Dark, wildly entertaining. . . All the Sinners Bleed is rough, smart, gritty, intricate, and Southern to the core.”
―NPR, Gabino Iglesias
“Superb…A thoughtfully plotted, unflinching look at Cosby’s familiar themes with precise character studies, crackling dialogue and the backdrop of a small town in Virginia.”
―South Florida Sun Sentinel
“Compelling characters, dark plot twists, mordant humor and ruthless violence. . . He’s a master of building a sense of creeping dread that explodes into hair-raising action. He’s also deft at bringing complex characters to life, and at pointed humor. . . Riveting ride.”
―Tampa Bay Times
“A rural, hair-raising crime story.”
―The New York Times, 9 New Books Coming in June
“An atmospheric pressure cooker.”
―People
“Breakneck noir crime thriller.”
―TIME
“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.”
―Roxane Gay, New York Times bestselling author
"A chilling, terrifying serial killer hunt.”
―Philadelphia Inquirer
“A taut and riveting whodunit.”
―Garden & Gun
“Superb…The hard-edged storytelling is supplemented by richly developed characters, especially Titus and his family, and Cosby elegantly layers his narrative over Virginia’s racial history, giving the proceedings uncommon emotional depth. This is easily the author’s strongest work to date.”
―Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Cosby’s literary skills are exceptional. His characters feel so real, his dialogue is pitch-perfect, and the story...is of such moral complexity it wholly commands the reader’s close attention. This is a crime novel to savor and ponder.”
―Booklist, starred review
“At once a gripping character study and a darkly compelling example of Southern noir...All the Sinners Bleed is a nerve-jangling, thought-provoking, often heartbreaking read, but also one that reminds readers 'there was beauty in the world . . . if you knew where to look.'"
―BookPage, starred review
“Cosby, the multi-award-winning author of Blacktop Wasteland and Razorblade Tears, has a unique, powerful voice for social justice and racism. His compelling writing will have readers rooting for his latest unforgettable, flawed hero.”
―Library Journal, starred review
“All The Sinners Bleed further cements S.A. Cosby's place as one of the most important new voices in crime fiction. Uncompromising, poignant and compelling, it seamlessly merges an action-packed mystery with thoughtful commentary on what it’s like to live in America right now. I won’t read a better book this year. Incredible.”
―M. W. Craven, bestselling author of Fearless
“All The Sinners Bleed is another banger from S. A. Cosby. Titus Crown is one of the most compelling characters I've read in a long time.”
―Steve Cavanagh, bestselling author of Thirteen
“Only S.A. Cosby could bring poetry to the darkness. A dark, disturbing and gripping masterpiece that reaches into the depths of your soul.”
―Nadine Matheson, bestselling author of The Jigsaw Man
“With the release of All The Sinners Bleed, S. A. Cosby further cements the arrival of a great American author. Although the story is cleverly veiled as an engaging suspense/mystery, he manages to deftly examine issues of race, class and religion with impressive effectiveness. Loved the ride.”
― Eriq La Salle, Actor/Director/Producer and author of Laws of Wrath
“S. A. Cosby does Thomas Harris!! And proves that the serial killer novel is back with his cleverly plotted and socially relevant take on the hunt for a monstrous killer…A fast-paced book that will also have you asking deep questions about the nature of faith, All the Sinners Bleed is bound to be one of my favorite books of the year."
―Lithub
“S. A. Cosby is a proven master of crime fiction, and All the Sinners Bleed continues his hot streak….This socially conscious southern noir is about as violent and grizzly as novels get ― a heavy but necessary read for those sultry nights steeped in moonlight and moonshine where the ugly truth gets the justice and the reckoning it deserves.”
―Vulture
“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.”
―Vaseem Khan, bestselling author of the Baby Ganesh Agency series and the Malabar series
“An uncompromising, blistering Southern Gothic with a compelling, beautifully drawn protagonist in Titus Crown. Cosby's writing sings.”
―Mason Cross, author of the Carter Blake series
“A gripping cat-and-mouse game...Readers will cheer at Titus’ brutal screeds against those who push him past the point of patience....Another provocative and page-turning entry in the Southern noir genre.”
―Kirkus
About the Author
Photo Credit: Sam Sauter Photography
S. A. Cosby is an Anthony Award-winning writer from Southeastern Virginia. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Razorblade Tears and Blacktop Wasteland, which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, was a New York Times Notable Book, and was named a best book of the year by NPR, The Guardian, and Library Journal, among others. When not writing, he is an avid hiker and chess player. READ MORE
