All The Sinners Bleed ★★★★★

I picked up this book at my wife’s recommendation after the last book I was reading was returned to the library before I finished it. She reads more fiction than I do, and I trust her recommendations. Lately, she has started “reading” non-fiction books that I recommend via audiobooks, and I’ve increased my reading of fiction books in the last two years, but I’m picky about fiction. I don’t mind the literary fiction, but I can only read so many of those. As a downtime, I want a page-turner.

All the Sinners Bleed was the best of both worlds. A black sheriff in southeastern Virginia, where racism is still practiced but more subtly. Lately, as in the real world, the racists have started becoming bolder (a march through the town with Confederate flags during the town’s biggest annual Fall Festival), and within these tensions, a series of gruesome murders start happening after a young man shoots a beloved Geography teacher at the local high school.

It occurred to him no place was more confused by its past or more terrified of the future than the South.

The book offers a good insight of a black man who left his town, had a stellar academic journey, a stint at the FBI, and then seemingly returned to take care of his father and somehow got elected as the county’s first Black sheriff. Racial tensions abound plenty but not in a way to cause helplessness but more in the spirit of standing up to the bigotry only to see the racists wilt.

…if your cousin ain’t a racist, he is mighty goddamn comfortable with being around racists. That’s a distinction without a difference.

He has lost religion after the death of his mother but knows enough about religious texts to put the faux believers in their place. He has a contentious relationship with his brother who lives in the same town but is also close enough to share a secret that he has even told his current and ex-girlfriend with whom he broke up abruptly. 

The book also captures the essence of a small town well and under all that pride and nostalgia for a place that hardly deserves it, you can sense a dark and evil ties that bind certain parts of the community together at the expense of others.

Small towns are like the people who populate them. They are both full of secrets. Secrets of the flesh, secrets of blood. Hidden oaths and whispered promises that turn to lies just as quick as milk spoils under a hot summer sun.

Carla chuckled. “FFD.”

Titus arched an eyebrow.

“My brother Luis used to say, ‘Ain’t nothing to do in small towns except fighting, fucking, and drinking.’

The mystery is good one and moves at a brisk pace. Although set in Virginia, I got a strong vibe of “True Detective” although much less mystical (The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness - Joseph Conrad). It also reminded my wife and I of the racial tones in the movie, Sinners; something thate even it shares its name with. No vampires in this one though, fortunately (or unfortunately). The end is satisfying and not your typical perfect storybook ending; something that you can imagine would happen in real life. 

I highly recommend reading it.