Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience

The author keeps you entertained throughout this entire book. From the main characters Mick and his sister to even the supporting characters also. Many stories going on that make you feel that you are part of this hill community. Mick is home on leave and has gone from being a combat soldier to now CID for the Army. His sister is the newly elected sheriff and is dealing with a murder that another agency’s what to take it over but she does not want to give up control. She asks her brother for help. He helps her along with dealing with his own issues on why he is home dealing with his wife. The way the author takes you through each person’s life is fascinating for it is so smoothly you don’t even know you made the switch until a few lines. It is like this throughout the book and it makes for a very good read. A very good who done it and also will Mick find what he is looking for also. Very much worth the read.

You get the feeling Offutt writes country noir because it comes natural, not for any other reason. The Killing Hills is a tightly woven narrative set in Kentucky hill country where you are judged on your family name. It’s a remote place where people just want to be left on their own even if they are up to no good. Mick Hardin grew up there although he hasn’t spent much of his adult life there. Mick has been an Army CID Officer, and has spent his life in Iraq, Afghanistan, and all the other tourist hot spots. He barely unpacks when he’s home and Peggy is not unaware of that. Mick is back at his sister’s instigation, finding that his wife is pregnant and trying to work the math and assure himself it adds up right.

What Offutt does so well here is he offers parallel tensions between Mick’s precarious marriage and his sort of unofficial deputy to his sister, the county sheriff. Mick’s skill is that he can navigate between the rule book and the backwoods attitudes which say an eye for an eye and the blood feud continues. A truly interesting character who could be the foundation of a series.

I am a member of the American Library Association Reading List Award Committee. This title was suggested for the 2022 list. It was not nominated for the award. The complete list of winners and shortlisted titles is at <a href="https://rusaupdate.org/2022/01/readers-advisory-announce-2022-reading-list-years-best-in-genre-fiction-for-adult-readers/">

I really enjoy Chris Offutt’s novels - There’s just something in the way he captures a turn of phrase. This audiobook was narrated very well, with patience and just a hint of a Southern accent.

“There’s murder in them thar hills!”

Mick Hardin is a combat veteran and investigator with the Army CID who has returned home on leave to find that his wife is pregnant and the baby may or may not be his. As he tries to cope with that he’s retreated to the cabin in the Kentucky hills where he was raised by his grandfather to do some serious drinking. His sister is the local sheriff and when a girl is found murdered in the woods, she asks Mick to help her find the killer. Looking into the crime means dealing with the dead woman’s angry relatives, other suspicious hill folk, political intrigue, an FBI agent, and some thugs sent to keep Mick from interfering with the local heroin distribution.

There’s two immediate and easy comparisons that spring to mind when discussing this one. The first is the excellent TV series Justified, and the second are the great Quinn novels by Ace Atkins. If you’re a fan of either or both of those then I think it’s safe to say that you’ll probably like this book.

However, while there are similarities in story and setting to those other works, Chris Offutt has carved out his own unique niche here. There’s a real sense of the place and people that comes up in various gritty details. For example, at one point Mick knows he’ll have to go up some steep muddy roads in an old pick-up so he haggles with a local mechanic to get an old scrap engine to use for weight in the back of his truck. (That brought back a memory from my own youth of how my dad had a couple of old tire inner tubes filled with sand to put the back of his truck for weight in the winner.)

Offutt also establishes a complex web of the kind of personal relationships you find in small towns where everybody has some kind of history or blood connection to everybody else. Generational grudges are held and judgements are made depending on your lineage. It’s also the kind of place where time seems to stand still in some ways, and the progress that does come just seems designed to screw over the locals.

It’s a solid crime story with a great rural vibe to it.

The cover for The Killing Hills appealed to me more than the actual novel. I didn't care much for the setting, and the need for outside help to solve a murder seemed contrived. Ultimately I was bored.
Thanks NetGalley for the ARC.

More great stuff from Chris Offut. I don't like reducing fiction to categories, and I'm especially not fond of "Hillbilly Noir" and genre titles of that sort. So, call it what you will, this is simply a fine novel.

It's heart-rending material that makes for tough reading at times, but Offut tells his story with a steely determination. There's no sentimentality here, but you can feel the affection Offut has for his characters and his part of the world. His hills come alive as a living, breathing place -- even as the old way of life in them is dying, bit by bit.

Mick is a great character with a great back story. The ending felt a bit abrupt, and it made me wonder if a sequel/series might be in the cards. We can all hope so.

Mick Hardin fell in love early , married, and found a home in the service. A place where home was far flung and transitory. A wife on base ,then at home and now pregnant. The time frame is tight but it could work. Mick has a sister that is sheriff and female two factors that work against and rarely for her. She has murder only her brothers skills can help solve. Mick asks and is granted leave to visit his wife, so he arrives with a twofold mission and a cabin full of ghosts past and present. Life in this town is tied to who your people are , and who they married. The land passes through the generations as families stay to leave, only to return. Mick knows these roads, it’s people and how they settle debts.

I was drawn in by the setting of this book in the beginning. I have always been fascinated with the Appalachian mountains and the people living in them. I hadn’t read anything about them in so long I was expecting there to be a difference. This novel is just as gritty as I would have expected. The story was a good old fashioned noir with no real surprises. It was just a nice quick read that gave this reader a bit of nostalgia.

The Killing Hills by Chris Offutt

Thanks to Mr. Offutt, Grove Atlantic, and NetGalley! I had just finished Country Dark thanks to my smart Lit friend, as in Literature, but yes he is Lit also! With “The Killing Fields” we see some of the familiar themes of rural Kentucky and corrupt politicians, and just plain corrupt humans. I really enjoy Mr. Offutt’s writing style, reminds me of the master himself Cormac McCarthy. The highest praise I can give to any author. This is gritty noir mystery. It is dark, but it is also smart and very readable. Mr. Offutt is always loyal to the story and respects the reader’s intelligence. If you are looking for dark mystery thrillers with beautiful descriptive prose of the rural America with intense noir you are in the right place. I will always look forward to reading whatever Chris Offutt offers us. Thanks for reading! #NetGalley #TheKillingFields #ChrisOffutt

<b><i>Do What Has To Be Done.</i></b>

Imma steal a line from my best pal’s recent playbook and simply state . . . . THIS. IS. HOW. IT. IS. DONE.

Hot damn but do I love some hick lit!

The story here is about Mick, an Army CID agent on leave who returns to his hometown to discover a baby he ain’t so positive he should be happy about and his newly elected sheriff sister dealing with a dead body an old ‘seng hunter happened to stumble upon out in the woods. Now it’s a game of beat the clock to solve the case while keeping the Feds at bay and doing so without raising the body count unless it’s absolutely necessary.

This book was dang near perfect for me. I mean what’s not to like????? Great storytelling, setting in the hills of Kentucky, a dead body, drug running, philandering. It's got it all.

Chris Offut got himself on my radar with <i>Country Dark</i>. This latest release has made him an auto request.

<i>ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, NetGalley!</i>

This mystery was a page turner, and I couldn't put it down. If you liked the TV show Justified, you'll like this book.

Let's talk about the basic recipe for a modern day mystery:

A homicide in a hitherto peaceful place - check.
The police in over their head - check.
An investigator who is brilliant at solving crimes, but who sucks at live in general - check.

I daresay, all the ingredients are there. But the way Chris Offutt blends them together is what separates this book from your run-off-the-mill mystery.

Mick Hardin, our protagonist, suffers from PTSD and has a pregnant wife he's currently not on speaking terms with. But he also has a keen eye, quick thinking and years of experience as an army investigator. So when the sheriff of his rural Kentucky home - his own sister - asks him for help investigating a homicide, he doesn't hesitate. He also has an ulterior motive above all - don't want nobody hurt, because he's seen too much of it in the army. And he takes this motive to reason with everything, even with a mule working as a post. (You'll understand it when you see it, I guess.)

And this being Kentucky, Mick and the people he's going to meet on his twisted road to the truth are all being very, well, Kentucky-ian. Kentucky-ish? Kentuckyanish. I know that I'm missing the real life experience myself, but reading this - and especially the dialogues - just puts you in the right set of mind. I swear I've heard the people talk in my head with a rural Kentucky dialect.

(Or at least with what my mind imagines this dialect sounds like. I'm drawing from my experience of watching Justified here, all seasons, with Mick as a stand-in for Marshall Givens. I'm undecided about the role of Boyd Crowder, though.)

The southern style gives this book his appeal, when blood runs thicker than water. And it does, in a place where people judge you by the family name you carry around.

What came a little short, though, were two things: The book itself - only 240 pages - and the mystery part, because there is actually little detecting done in this. That deprives me, as a reader, from the joy of guessing at the killer.

And I have to admit that the end feels unsatisfying to me. I get the chain of events from a logical point of view, but it still feels kinda wrong. Same for the way Mick's personal drama resolves, though his point of view is relatable. It just feels like the end was kinda rushed, on all sides. And it takes away from the whole "homicide in a peaceful place" vibe.

So, the setting and atmosphere are highlights, the characters are shady enough to make all of it interesting. The mystery is a bit disappointing in the end, turning out to be an accident and the rest is family feud (apparently it's everyone's favorite hobby in the Kentucky hills). For me, the whole thing felt kinda lackluster, like a great buildup to a rather short end.

I'm at 3.5 / 5, which means it's decision time. I was inclined to round up, but the end was kind of missing a wrap up, so this time I'm rounding down to a 3.

From Instagram review in link.

The Killings Hills by Chris Offut

This is my favorite of the three, possibly because it feels more like a Fall release with all the transitional beauty and sorrow that season brings. Even though the book is marketed as rural crime fiction, the writing here is on par with Cormac McCarthy.

Mick Hardin, a military homicide detective, is back home from his Germany tour when a body is found near his grandpa’s remote cabin. His sister, a newly appointed young woman sheriff needs his help solving the crime. His estranged wife is also pregnant. Mick is a mess. The pacing is brisk, and yet the characters are nuanced, believable and deep. Offut’s description of ‘them Kentucky hills’ and the spell they cast on the people are mesmerizing. You should read this book.

'The Killing Hills' is equal parts suspenseful thriller and a colorful portrait of people and nature in Kentucky. In Germany we might call that kind of story 'Lokalkrimi' (local mystery?!). The characters were well-portrayed, most of the quirky kind, or maybe that's just the impression they make on an 'outsider' not familiar with the Kentucky way of things. Come to think of it, the author could be making fun all the time without me even noticing it, but I don't really think so. The book was full of suspense, but also made me grin on more than one occasion, and thankfully never slipped into triviality or absurdity. A perfect page turner!

Mick Hardin returns home from Germany to Kentucky at the behest of his sheriff sister to help with the investigation of Nonnie Johnson’s death in the hills. Upon return, he finds his personal life in sudden flux, and repairing it will take as much effort as the investigation. The book is pregnant with obfuscation and tense scenes with tight-lipped locals. Mick has a languid, yet precise way of talking that carries the book, but at times it becomes too fawning of his stoicism and stiff upper lip. The atmosphere conjured by Offutt is looming and compelling, like a heavy storm cloud on the horizon. However, although there is a fair amount of effort put into the detective work, the conclusion of the case is arrived at largely by happenstance, which is something south of satisfying, even as it’s straining towards a clever detente.

Review posted at BookBrowse: https://www.bookbrowse.com/mag/reviews/index.cfm/ref/pr275008
Please see the full review at BookBrowse by following the above link. This is a first-rate detective thriller with a noir vibe. Readers who enjoy books by writers like Jim Thompson should like this novel.

Thank you Grove Atlantic and Netgalley for sharing this recently published novel. Overall I thought it was only ok. It kept me reading until the end but I found it to be disappointing at the conclusion, and seemed too short. I also thought the characterization of the sheriff, who is the protagonist’s sister, strained credulity. Those who enjoy dark southern/Appalachian tales may like this one.

Mick's sister placed a phone call to him while he was in Germany. (stationed there as a CID agent) She has recently been appointed sheriff back in their small Kentucky hometown and she needs to let him know that his wife has been keeping a secret. The wife is pregnant.

Mick takes leave and returns to the Kentucky hills....and dude the descriptions that Chris Offutt gives of this area is glorious. Read this book just for that alone if you must.

When he gets there his sister needs his help. An old guy was out in the woods gathering some ginseng and he stumbled on a body.

Both storylines of this story are so good. The who done it part and Mick's personal life. I could not decide which I liked best.


I actually liked this book so much that I read it in two days and if you have been following me the last year or so-you know that is a dang miracle.
The only thing that earned this book a four instead of that five star is that I was still wanting more of it to the point when it ended quickly I was pissed off.
But Chris Offutt might just be superman because he did write one that was perfection. Country Dark.



Book source: Netgalley in exchange for review.
1 like