The Killing Hills by Chris Offutt

This book is the first in a series that revolves around the protagonist, Mick Hardin. As this novel begins, he is in the Army, but on leave back home in Eastern Kentucky, and his wife is fixing to have a baby, but their relationship is becoming difficult. His sister, the new sheriff, convinces him to help her investigate a murder. The Killing Hills made Deep South magazine’s Summer Reading List for 2021, and positive mention in the United Kingdom as well. “Few writers today can boast of a body of work as wide-ranging and virtuosic as Offutt’s. His novels and short stories bend genres and upend expectations . . . In all of his work, Offutt combines literary artistry with narrative momentum. The Killing Hills is no exception: A taut, gripping thriller, it also draws us deep into the lives of its troubled characters with wit, compassion, and insight . . . The same knack for propulsion, characterization, and snappy dialogue that made Chris Offutt a natural for Hollywood are on ample displa