Books: All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby (2023)

“Titus Crown is the first Black sheriff in the history of Charon County, Virginia. In recent decades, Charon has had only two murders. 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. Those festering secrets are now out in the open and ready to tear the town apart. 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.” 

I generally liked the book; the pacing was fine, the body count high and the gore kept to a minimum. It starts with a school shooting, but instead of a massacre, we end up with a dead teacher (everyone’s favorite, all loved by both the white and black students). The killer is a troubled teen who is killed by police after spouting off some religious phrases. When Titus and his team begin their investigation, they realize Mr. Spearman had many secrets, one being a serial killer. Eventually, they find the bodies of teen boys and girls and going through both Spearman’s phone and computer, see the shocking videos and images of three people mutilating and killing these kids. With two of them dead –Spearman and Latrell- Titus must piece together the clues to find the third man before he can kill again. 

All the Sinners Bleed is a dark, gritty, thriller. But like the other book I read by Cosby, Razorblade Tears, I did not adore the book. It’s got some unsettling scenes, and despite some minor issues with skirmishes with the white people of Charon, it does not dwell on them deeply. However, I felt the women were a collection of stereotypes, and the only way we get to know them is through their relationship with Titus. Plus, his deputy sheriff Carla’s race is never really explored. I did not know if she was white, black, or Latino (and the only hint we get is someone calls her “J.Lo” and even that is not followed up on). 

I also had issue with the killers reveal. He only shows up in the last few pages of the book (and nowhere else) and for a mystery novel that is also a classic whodunit, this seems like terrible idea. Agatha Christie pulled this trick a few times and it’s a trope that should never be used again (also, it’s never revealed why Spearman and Latrell got involved with the killer to begin with, which is odd). 

There a bunch of subplots that are mentioned and go nowhere, or dropped completely. And despite being haunted by actions as an FBI agent, when Cosby finally reveals what happened to Titus in Indiana, I felt that Red DeCrain got what he deserved.

While Cosby’s writing is still evolving, he clearly is borrowing his prose style from other popular writers, noticeably Stephen King and Walter Mosley. It may be considered pretentious, but you have to stick out some way, I guess.