After distinguishing himself in the history-based crime-fiction field with four notable novels, Ace Atkins launches a new series with THE RANGER and new protagonist Quinn Colson. Like Atkins’ earlier Nick Travers novels, the setting is the American South. But if this debut is any indication, the Colson series will be much grittier and prone to more violent confrontations.

After becoming an Army Ranger, with service stints in Iraq and Afghanistan, there wasn’t much that could bring Colson back to his northeastern Mississippi home of Tibbehah County … except a funeral.

So when Quinn learned that his Uncle Hampton, the county sheriff, died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot, he finds himself driving down the old familiar roads to see his mother and the other remnants of his family and former life.

At first, nothing much seems to have changed. But no sooner does he arrive home when Lillie Virgil — a tomboy-ish girl he remembers from high school who grew up to be deputy sheriff — tells Quinn she’s positive his uncle did not kill himself, but was murdered. She’s convinced the death is linked to the gang of crystal-meth dealers now running the county, under the protection of the man who runs its Board of Supervisors, a local low-life Quinn also remembers from school.

With Lillie’s assistance and guidance, Quinn sets out to solve the mystery of his uncle’s death and rid Tibbehah County of the meth dealers and their powerful money. The more he digs, however, the deeper he finds the corruption has rooted itself in his hometown.
 
Atkins fans might at first be put off by this noticeably less than innovative plot. Indeed, the story of a prodigal son reluctantly returning home — and then sticking around to rid his town of the evil that has inflicted it — is far from new. But the author overcomes the familiarity of the narrative through a skillfully deployed pace, and mostly through his credible and surprisingly complex characters.
 
Quinn Colson is certainly as skilled and resourceful as we would expect any action hero to be, but is also plagued with doubt about his career and a future posting that will have him chained to a desk. Many of the other central figures run the risk of falling into Southern-fried caricatures — especially Gowrie, the foreboding leader of the meth gang who gets high on his own supply and delivers tirades on white supremacy mixed with end-times evangelicalism — yet Atkins amazingly saves him and other similar characters from becoming cartoons with Southern drawls.
 
The novel’s other winning asset is his portrayal of Mississippi and its surrounding locales — a heady mixture of sleepy towns seemingly stuck in time, along with urban sites striving for respectability contrasted with debris-strewn trailer parks and shanties. Atkins highlights the many beautiful, natural scenes and sights that make the area unique and imparts an unmistakable affection for this entire setting. It has served him well in earlier works and will undoubtedly remain a feature in the Colson stories.
 
THE RANGER already has won the hearts of many crime-fiction critics, and has earned an Edgar nomination from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Novel of 2011. Win or not, it’s a joy to have Atkins at the helm of a new series.
 
“I won’t stop trying with you,” says Lillie to Quinn as she drives off in the novel’s conclusion. Neither should any of us. —Alan Cranis

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