A fresh take on the humor and tragedy of southern folk involved with crime.
In a marketplace loaded with crime novels, and especially those set in the South, McBride determines to give his characters more character and less cliché “stupid” when it comes to Southern folk. The plot has the local sheriff, Dale Banks, discovering a large bundle of cash, “52,000” in what appears to be an abandoned house trailer, and determines that his taking it is for all the right reasons. Unfortunately, the cook thinks otherwise, knowing that money is owed to business associates and that to lose it might mean losing his life. Thus begins the usual bad guy chasing down the goods. The only part that bothered me was the rather cliché form of leverage used by the bad guy to get the sheriff to fess up, i.e., threatening his family and the sheriff’s life. One day I hope such a story uses a champion race horse, or a prize antique rifle as the leverage and leave the family out of it. All in all, however, a fun read.