Army-CID-officer-cum-unofficial-PI Mick Hardin is up against unforeseen forces who will stop at nothing in this vividly atmospheric thriller from acclaimed novelist Chris Offutt. Chris Offutt is a literary master across genres, and his most recent novel THE KILLING HILLS was one of his most successful, earning him a new audience and earning praise from the likes of The New York Times , the Wall Street Journal , and Crime Reads . His latest book, Shifty’s Boys , is a compelling, propulsive thriller of murder and mayhem in the hills of eastern Kentucky. Mick Hardin is home on leave, recovering from an IED attack, when a body is found in the center of town. It’s Barney Kissick, the local heroin dealer, and the city police see it as an occupational hazard. But when Barney’s mother, Shifty, asks Mick to take a look, it seems there’s more to the killing than it seems. Mick should be rehabbing his leg, signing his divorce papers, and getting out of town—and most of all, staying out of the way of his sister Linda’s reelection as Sheriff—but he keeps on looking, and suddenly he’s getting shot at himself. A dark, pacy crime novel about grief and revenge, and the surprises hidden below the surface, Shifty’s Boys is a tour de force that confirms Chris Offutt’s Mick Hardin as one of the most appealing new investigators in fiction. Praise for Shifty's Boys A Deadly Pleasures Pick for Best of Southern Noir 2022 “The writing is top-notch, shot through with menace and melancholy.”— Sarah Weinman, New York Times Book Review “Righteous Kentucky noir with top notes of Daniel Woodrell and SA Cosby. I gulped it down, relishing the burn”— Ian Rankin “Rich in atmospherics and a master-class in the craft of crime fiction… Offutt has created a wildly compelling private eye series full of memorable characters, drawn with an observant eye and passion for local terrain.”— Dwyer Murphy, CrimeReads “Another excellent Mick Hardin thriller set in rural eastern Kentucky… Come for the thriller, by all means; it delivers nicely. But stay for, and linger in, the marvelous incidentals and atmospherics: arguments about mall names; lore about snakes and birds and mushrooms; descriptions of a local shade-tree tinkerer’s Slinky-like version of a perpetual motion machine. Terrific characters; taut suspense. Another winner from Offutt.” — Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review) “This is country noir at its most powerful, combining cracking action with crystalline portraits of rough-hewn but savvy characters tragically forced to become "retribution killers" to stop yet another cycle of violence.” — Bill Ott, Booklist (Starred Review) “Readers will appreciate the novel’s respectful portrayal of the contemporary South as they ride along with Mick on his fair-minded, almost spiritual quest to root out the truth. Fans of contemporary small-town mysteries will look forward to Offutt’s next.” — Publishers Weekly “In elegant, economical prose, Shifty’s Boys is an accomplished addition to the ranks of country noir.”— Val McDermid, author of 1989 “With The Killing Hills and now Shifty’s Boys , Chris Offutt has launched a fantastic and compelling new crime novel series, and as a reader you may come to these books for the murders and the mysteries, rendered as they are with great page-turning style and thrilling action, but there's even more at work here. These books are also about a place and its people, and the result is a vivid portrait infused with insight and wisdom, humanity and affection. I eagerly await the next Mick Hardin!”— Jonathan Ames, author of A Man Named Doll “SHIFTY’S BOYS is a tale of vengeance that asks difficult questions about the nature and value of honor, every line delivered with the relentless efficiency of a wolf stripping meat from a bone. In Mick Hardin, Chris Offutt has created a complex, brooding hero, a man whose moral code was hewn from Kentucky hill-country rock. As his world turns darker and dirtier by the minute, once the brutal work is done, we are left with only a few words. More Mick, please.”— Christopher J. Yates, author of Grist Mill Road “How can it be that after just two of Chris Offutt’s Mick Hardin novels I love a bunch of the characters like they were my own family? I’m not even from Kentucky. And how can it be that these books are as thrilling and funny as a great crime show yet still exhibit the scraped, lean vernacular sentences readers of Offutt’s short fiction have come to admire? Here’s hoping Hardin rides for a good long while.”— Jonathan Lethem “ Shifty’s Boys is an economical, richly imagined crime story . . . [A] rare rural noir thriller.” — Deadly Pleasures “In just two relatively short novels, Chris Offutt has made me a dedicated fan of this series which I will eagerly read as each new episode comes out. Write faster, Chris.”— Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine “Offutt has written a propulsive literary thriller with an intricate plot that tests Hardin’s mettle throughout the book. His c