Mick Hardin, a combat veteran now working as an Army CID agent, is home on a leave that is almost done. His wife is about to give birth, but they aren’t getting along. His sister, newly risen to sheriff, has just landed her first murder case, and local politicians are pushing for city police or the FBI to take the case. Are they convinced she can’t handle it, or is there something else at work? She calls on Mick who, with his homicide investigation experience and familiarity with the terrain, is well-suited to staying under the radar. As he delves into the investigation, he dodges his commanding officer’s increasingly urgent calls while attempting to head off further murders. And he needs to talk to his wife.
With an investigator-hero unlike any in fiction, The Killing Hills is a dark and witty novel of betrayal and the way it so often shades into violence.
Summer Reading List 2021, Deep South Magazine
A Times [UK] Crime Club Pick of the Week
A Times [UK] Best New Thriller for November 2021
“[A] work of rural noir whose characters’ singular codes lead to constant surprises.”
—Wall Street Journal
Indiebound
Square Books