Quinn Colson returns to Jericho, Mississippi, and gets pulled back into a world of greed and violence in this gritty, darkly comic tale from  New York Times  bestselling Southern crime master Ace Atkins.   After being voted out of office and returning to the war zone he’d left behind, Quinn Colson is back in Jericho, trying to fix things with his still-married high school girlfriend and retired Hollywood stuntman father. Quinn knows he doesn't owe his hometown a damn thing, but he can't resist the pull of becoming a lawman again and accepts a badge from his former colleague, foul-mouthed acting Sheriff Lillie Virgil. Both officers have fought corruption in Tibbehah County before, but the case they must confront now is nothing like they've ever seen... When a former high school cheerleader is found walking a back road completely engulfed in flames, everyone in Jericho wants answers for the senseless act of violence. As Quinn and Lillie uncover old secrets and new lies, the entire town turns against them, and they soon learn that the most dangerous enemies may be the ones you trust most. Praise for  The Innocents “[N]othing short of riveting, a page turner that you will stay up all night to read....Atkins is a master of description on all points of the continuum....While I inwardly groan at the thought of having to wait another year for more Quinn Colson, my feelings are balanced by the certainty that it will be worth it.”—Bookreporter.com  “The rough-and-tumble relationship between two tough-as-nails law officers and the place they love provides plenty of action [and] well-developed characters.”— Kirkus Reviews “Quinn has to be the most refreshing  New York Times  Bestselling series character (there are numerous unsung independent publishing protagonists just as worthy) that I’ve come across in quite some time, and I’m hard pressed to name others that compare on this level—and, holy hell, that’s an invigorating statement to make…What else is there to say...read  The Innocents  by Ace Atkins. It’s literary crime fiction worthy of the hype.”—CriminalElement.com More Praise For Ace Atkins’s Quinn Colson Series “In Quinn Colson, bestselling author Ace Atkins has created an American hero in a time when we need him.”—C. J. Box  “Ace Atkins’s Quinn Colson series is, quite simply, the best in crime fiction today—and also so much more. With a rich cast of characters, and a hero we can count on, these are tales of morality and desperation, of shocking violence and the enduring resilience of family and community. And the emotional places they take us make them unforgettable.”—Megan Abbott  “Quinn Colson is my kind of guy. I would follow him anywhere.”—Lee Child  “Atkins finds his natural-born storytellers everywhere. It’s all music to these ears.”—Marilyn Stasio,  The New York Times Book Review Ace Atkins  is the  New York Times  bestselling author of the Quinn Colson novels, the first two of which— The Ranger  and  The Lost Ones —were nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Novel (he also has a third Edgar nomination for his short story, “Last Fair Deal Gone Down”). In addition, he is the author of several  New York Times  bestselling novels in the continuation of Robert B. Parker’s Spenser series. Before turning to fiction, he was a correspondent for the  St. Petersburg Times , a crime reporter for the  Tampa Tribune , and, in college, played defensive end for the undefeated Auburn University football team (for which he was featured on the cover of  Sports Illustrated ). He lives in Oxford, Mississippi. 1 Lillie Virgil stood high on a north Mississippi hill at daybreak listening to old Ruthie Holder talk about the man who'd run off with her grandson's Kawasaki four-wheeler and her brand-new twelve-gauge Browning. Ruthie said she'd just gotten home from the Piggly Wiggly with a week's worth of groceries when this skinny, bucktoothed varmint jumped out of the bushes and started in with a lot of crazy talk. "What exactly did he say, Miss Holder?" "He told me that the g.d. Mexican cartel was in my kitchen making chorizo and eggs and if I walked inside they'd have their way with me," she said. "I told him it was a lot of foolish talk, but he insisted on going in without me. Next thing I knew, he was running out with my Browning and headed to the shed." Lillie reached down and lowered the volume on the police radio. She was tall, with an athlete's lean muscles and lots of crazy light brown hair she kept neat in a bun and under a ball cap. That day, she wore gold aviator glasses, a Glock 19 on her hip, and chewed gum, as she asked, "Have you ever seen this asshole before?" "This man wasn't wearing a shirt or shoes, just a pair of ragged old Levi's," Ruthie Holder said. "He had a tattoo of Hank Williams Junior on his back. Do you think I'd ever consort with trash like that?" "No, ma'am," Lillie said. Ruthie ran the Citizens Bank for years, served as president of the local chapter of the Daughte