Fans of Justified and James Lee Burke will love Mississippi lawman Quinn Colson in this Edgar® Award Nominee for Best Novel from the author of The Ranger... When Army Ranger Quinn Colson, the new sheriff of Tibbehah County, is called out to investigate a child abuse case, what he finds is a horrifying scene of neglect, thirteen empty cribs, and a shoe box full of money. Janet and Ramon Torres seem to have skipped town—but Colson’s sure they’ll come back for the cash. Meanwhile, Colson’s sister has returned—clean and sober for good, she says. His friend Boom has been drinking himself into oblivion and picking fights at the local bar. And his old flame is pregnant. But Colson can’t focus on his personal problems. He and Deputy Lillie Virgil are convinced that Janet and Ramon have a taste for guns, drugs, and human trafficking. Soon Colson and Virgil find a link between the fugitive couple and a drug cartel that controls most of the Texas border, taking their investigation far beyond the rough hills of northeast Mississippi... “Ace Atkins goes straight for the throat in The Lost Ones .”— Houston Press More Praise for  The Lost Ones “Atkins’ sense of place is superb, his story stark and suspenseful. Quinn Colson has a quick wit, a strong sense of honor, and radiates sex appeal, but more importantly he knows the difference between law and order.”— Milwaukee Journal Sentinel “Atkins delivers a powerful, ripped-from-the-headlines plot.”— Mystery Scene “Atkins seems to have hit his stride with this splendid sequel to the Edgar Award-nominated  The Ranger .”— Library Journal “Edgar-finalist Atkins showcases his versatility in his exciting, thoughtful second thriller starring ex-Ranger–turned–lawman Quinn Colson...a contemporary laconic lead battling evil that could come straight out of a Gary Cooper western.”— Publishers Weekly 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   A couple roustabouts had been asking about guns at the Tibbehah County Fair, but by the time the word had gotten back to Donnie Varner, they'd long since packed up their Ferris wheel, corn dog stands and shit, and boogied on down the highway. He'd tried for them at a rodeo up in Eupora and the fall festival over in Hernando, but it wasn't until he pulled off the highway into a roadside carnival in Byhalia, Mississippi, that he knew he had the right spot. It was late, past nine o'clock, and the edge of Highway 78 was lit up in red, blue, and yellow neon, the fairway spreading out past the gas station and into an open cow field, bursting with folks carrying popcorn and balloons, little black kids and white kids, Mexicans working the stands. The air smelled like burnt sugar and cigarettes.   "ÀD—nde est‡ Alejandro Ram’rez Umana?"   A fat brown woman running a stick around a cotton candy dryer nodded to the flashing lights of a Tilt-A-Whirl called the Cool Breeze. As Donnie walked closer, he could see the little cars spinning and zipping up into a fake ice tunnel where folks would scream when getting blasted with cold air and mist. Donnie's white T-shirt was already soaked through from his ride up from Jericho with no air conditioner in a busted-up Dodge van he'd borrowed from his church.   How the hell else could he have brought a sampling of the fifteen AK-47s, two Mossberg 12-gauge shotguns, three MAK-90 assault rifles, a Ruger Mini-14, and a .223 caliber AR variant rifle? There was a mixed bag of ammunition, scopes, magazines, and gun cases to show that he meant business and could deliver more.   A dark girl with long legs was t