Fear and Loathing in Virginia

 I really enjoyed "All the Sinners Bleed," one of few thrillers to make the "Notable 2023" list in the Times, and a book that caught Barack Obama's attention.

The main impressive feature in this book is its protagonist, Titus, a Black sheriff in a troubled Virginia town, Charon. Titus is torn between two women; it worries him that he no longer mentions his love to his girlfriend, Darlene, but instead waits for her to say the sentence. He wants to reform his team of police, but he also sees that corner-cutting can sometimes be a valuable option. Titus is irritated when his brother skids off the rails--but he himself has his own memory of skidding off the rails, in an FBI case from his recent past.

The writer, S.A. Cosby, has an eye for nuance. When a white officer shoots a disturbed Black man, protestors suggest this is a fathomless tragedy (though the Black man had been assisting in the rapes and murders of Black children in Charon). Titus doesn't get on the media bandwagon--and yet he also goes after his white officer, who hasn't followed protocol. (The reasons for the police aggression are surprising, and they have a link with drugs.) In one of the novel's finest scenes, a group of Proud Boys gathers when a Black teen defaces a monument to the Confederacy, a "tribute" to those who "fought to preserve our way of life." Titus silences the racist protest: "This monument is not public property. It belongs to the Daughters of the Confederacy. Destruction of the monument is not a crime....You have to write a letter to the local chapter of the DOC...." Simultaneously, Titus feels annoyed about one particularly outspoken counter-protester, a member of the local chapter of BLM. "He seemed not to care so much about his community when he was helping to flood it with meth just five months ago...."

Cosby clearly admires Stephen King (a mutual admiration society)--and Gothic elements of this book seem to be borrowed from King's "The Shining" (and also from Thomas Harris's "The Silence of the Lambs"). The mystery element isn't the strongest part of the story--although the sense of suspense is impressive, and the pacing is brisk. The reason the book earned so much attention is Titus himself; in his messiness, he reminds me of Michael Connelly's Bosch, and I wouldn't mind reading a second book about him.

Two thumbs up.