Shifty's Boys

Mick Hardin #2

by Chris Offutt

Army cop-turned-small-town-investigator Mick Hardin returns to the Kentucky hills in this second vividly atmospheric thriller from acclaimed literary crime novelist Chris Offutt.

A literary master across genres, award-winning author Chris Offutt's latest book, Shifty's Boys, is a compelling, propulsive thriller that returns to Appalachia.

Mick Hardin is an Army CID officer home on leave, recovering from an IED attack and flirting with prescription painkillers, 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.

Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Crime, Fiction, Noir, Mystery Thriller, Audiobook

262 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2022

Reviews

[Orsodimondo · Rating 4 out of 5]

LA LEGGE DELLE COLLINE


Appalachi

La cultura delle colline prescriveva una grande lealtà verso la famiglia, e un generale sospetto per l’istruzione. I giovani dovevano rassicurare le famiglie che non avevano fatto il passo più lungo della gamba, subendo la perniciosa influenza dell’aula. Molti genitori temevano che i figli, una volta laureati, andassero a cercare lavoro altrove e li lasciassero a invecchiare da soli..

Le colline sono quelle predilette da Chris Offutt, quelle del suo Kentucky. Mi ha molto colpito l’epigrafe di Cesare Pavese (Queste colline non cambiano) perché accosta due autori diversissimi che però hanno un paesaggio nel cuore: quello collinare. Che per la cronaca è anche la mia terra dell’anima, le colline etrusche.



Mi verrebbe da dire che quest’ultimo Offutt è un po’ meno noir dei precedenti: un thriller crime che in qualche modo rassicura con i suoi asciutti ma buoni rapporti umani e familiari: il protagonista è tornato “a casa” in licenza di convalescenza – una bomba durante una missione militare in Medio Oriente – ma invece di andare a stare nella casetta (capanno) che gli ha lasciato il nonno – troppo isolata, non può guidare, ma probabilmente anche troppo fredda, troppo scomoda, troppo esigente sforzo fisico – va a stare nella casa di sua sorella, sceriffo del paesello, in piena campagna elettorale per essere rieletta.



L’azione dura una settimana o poco più: poi Mick Hardin dovrà tornare in Germania dove è di stanza nel corpo di polizia militare. Mentre si sforza di recuperare forza e agilità alla gamba ferita, viene ritrovato il cadavere del locale spacciatore di ero (nel paesino ovviamente tutti sanno tutto di tutti, ma si riesce comunque a mantenere un bel numero di segreti e misteri). La mamma del morto, per vecchi legami di conoscenza e in qualche modo di amicizia, coinvolge il nostro soldato in convalescenza e gli chiede di scoprire chi ha ucciso suo figlio e perché. Nel frattempo la polizia ha liquidato l’assassinio come regolamento di conti tra spacciatori.
I morti aumentano, dopo il primo ne arrivano altri due. Ma il caso viene risolto e Tim Hardin può ripartire per l’Europa.

Come dire, un Offutt più morbido, più familiare – come sottolinea il titolo dell’edizione italiana (in originale invece è ben diverso, Shifty’s Boys) – ma conferma un gran piacere e una scorrevolezza di lettura che per me sono parte della sua cifra di narratore.

[David Putnam · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best way to describe this one is comfortable. A soft easy read without any surprises. Maybe a half-step back from his last book. I love the writing and the characters especially the way they interact. Love the unique life style and setting, the atmosphere. Sometimes the colloquial language slowed me down and I had to go back and reread the sentences.
One thing that did catch me up. I understand there are two worlds, the reading world--where certain misnomers are excepted--and the real world. Some times an author will fly too close to the sun and for me that's what happened here with some of the military references. For example there are two hardcore military characters who refer to a gun's magazine over and over as a clip. That's a taboo. A magazine is only a clip in the readers world. You call it a clip in the military or in law enforcement and there's a good chance you're going to get spanked. (note there were clips in the military back in WWI and WWII but those were for interior mags).
What makes this book comfortable was that there isn't anything new, no twist at the end, no surprise. And yet I was still happy to take the ride with the author because of his great writing craft. Character is story and story is not story that's what my mentor and writing instructor drilled into me. And here is a perfect example.
d.

[Zoeytron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rocksalt, Kentucky.  Tater Lick Road.  Not sure why I feel at home with this author's books.  Love that 1953 pickup truck.  Blood ties, retribution, the obligations of hill families.  This went too quickly for me.  Another reviewer mentioned this had the waft of some of the episodes of Justified with Mags Bennett and her boys, and I concur. Action packed tale with Mick Hardin, who was featured in The Killing Hills.  He is someone you want on your side.  Period.

[Tracy P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author Chris Offutt brings us another phenomenal and exciting episode in the life of Mick Hardin (the always shining everyman), who has once again returned to his native hometown in rural Kentucky. This time he is living with his sister Linda since he was in need of some TLC after being sent home on medical leave from his post in the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) to rehab his leg after it was seriously injured during and enemy IED bombing.
Mick is sick of being dependent on painkillers (and liking them a little too much) and bored as he starts to become more mobile and independent. With Linda losing patience with his lackluster attitude and also currently busy campaigning for reelection as Sheriff, he quickly accepts a request from (his father's old flame) Shifty Kissick. She wants him to find out who murdered another one of her sons - the county's drug commandant - when it is clear the local law will do nothing and are only too happy say good riddance and wipe their hands of the troublemaker. Mick is a hardened soldier, who has seen and delved out much death. Yet, he is also fair minded, believes in fighting for the underdog, and that no life should taken and written off just because of their lifestyle. Mick allies himself with Shifty's last living son (Raymond) when he returns home from California for his sibling's funeral. Together, they make quite a team as they work together to bring down the killer(s) of the (most recent) murdered Kissick male. Mick suffers much hardship in this episode - both emotionally and physically. His humility, intelligence - both academically and socially - as well as his respect for all forms of life is inspiring. No matter how much good he does, he will not allow himself an ends justify the means mentality. His self-deprecation and nonjudgmental (except of himself) mindset is what made makes him authentic, instantly endearing and someone I would want to know in real life.
The character development, action, and suspense intertwine together flawlessly. Shifty's Boys is yet another topnotch demonstration of Offutt's incredible creativity, talent, and insight - what a wordsmith. I cannot wait for the next episode and hope Mr. Offutt continues writing Mick Hardin's life adventures well into the future.

[Faith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had hoped for a sequel to “The Killing Hills” and I was not disappointed by this book. While this book can be read as a standalone, you will get a much clearer picture of Mick Hardin and his Kentucky home town if you read the prior book. Now Mick is almost recovered from wounds he received while serving as an Army CID agent. Shifty is the mother of three grown sons, including Barney, a drug dealer. When Barney is found murdered, the local police don’t seem to care much about solving the crime, so Shifty asks Mick to help. The character of Shifty is not fleshed out very much. She could have used some backstory and only one of her sons played a significant role in the book.

This author is very good at writing rural noir. There is a real sense of place. The only action occurs near the end of the book, but the characters, relationships and dialogue are what bring the story to life. It doesn’t seem like there will be another Nick Hardin book, but I’ll read the author’s next book anyway.

I received free copies of this audiobook and ebook from the publisher.

[Susan (on hiatus) · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Hills are Alive.

However the sound of music in these Kentucy hollers is justice.

I found the second Mick Hardin book even more enjoyable than the debut.

True to The Killing Hills, the local vernacular remains in peak form while the short dialogues are to the point while instilling humor. I love an author who can say a lot in fewer words!

I also liked the military vibe and tactical sections since I don’t have much knowledge there.

Set in rural Kentucky with continuing characters in addition to new ones, I’m invested in these people and am looking forward to reading book three.

I would recommend this to those liking colorful personalities combined with mystery and action.

Purchased at Barnes and Noble.

[Still · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrific dirt road, backwoods crime thriller. Not really a noir, more of an action novel. I think both women readers who enjoy crime thrillers with touches of marital… uhhhh …what’s the opposite of “bliss”?- as well as Men’s Adventure enthusiasts would enjoy this novel, the second entry in the Mick Hardin series.

I just hope Chris Offutt keeps this series going. It’s off to a great start!

Highest Recommendation

[Melki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Death was a force of social leveling in the hills, a provider of intricate respect.

Shifty was my favorite character from the previous book in this series, The Killing Hills. Try as I might, I could not stop picturing her played by Margo Martindale as Mags Bennett, my favorite character from Justified.



These are not women to be trifled with . . .

When one of Shifty's sons is murdered, the cops put it down as a "drug deal gone wrong." Mick Hardin suspects there was another reason, and is determined to find out what really happened. Getting the score from these tight-lipped hill people who are armed to the teeth is a different story.

Snitches get stitches and wind up in ditches shitting their britches.

It's really not necessary to have read the first book, but read it sometime, as you don't want to miss out.

Another fine, compelling tale by one of my very favorite authors.

A big thanks to NetGalley and Grove Press for letting me read this one.

[Diane Barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This second book in the Mick Hardin series bring Mick back to Kentucky a year later, recuperating from an IED attack that injured his leg. He's staying with his sister when a local drug dealer is murdered. Shifty, the dealer's mother, asks Mick to find out who did it.

Mick is an investigative officer in the army, his sister is the sheriff running for re-election, and he knows he shouldn't get involved, so of course he does.

In the process, we find out more about recurring characters, meet some new ones, and get more involved in the town of Rocksalt. The character development is just as important as the mystery, which gets more involved the more he knows. Another satisfying conclusion that makes you thankful that men like Mick Hardin exist.

[Joe · Rating 2 out of 5]

My introduction to the fiction of Chris Offutt is Shifty's Boys. Published in 2022, this novel blipped on my radar via a CrimeReads article of the best noir fiction of the year. This is the third swing and a miss from the book nuts at CrimeReads. I skimmed Real Easy by Marie Rutkoski and abandoned Don't Know Tough by Eli Cranor. With Shifty's Boys I gave up halfway through, but darn gorn liked enough of it to add an extra star. These are books, do involve crime and are professionally edited. I didn't notice any spelling errors. Beyond that, these authors haven't given me much of a reason to keep turning pages of their books.

The story involves an army CID officer named Mick Hardin who's been wounded by an IED in Afghanistan. Reaching the last leg of his rehab, Mick has claimed his wife in Rocksalt, Kentucky can take care of him and receives permission to return home. In fact, Mick's wife has left him. He moves in with his sister Linda Hardin, newly elected town sheriff, who prefers living alone and wishes her brother would go back to the army. Mick is summoned by Shifty, the matriarch of a backwoods heroin peddling family to look into the murder of her boy Fuckin' Barney, who was found shot dead in town. That's his name: Fuckin' Barney.

Shifty's Boys isn't a cozy mystery but it is very easy going. It makes some of Elmore Leonard's novels feel meticulous. Like Leonard, Offutt surfs the rhythms of day-to-day living pretty honestly. His characters are eccentrics. There's a deputy sheriff with an inordinate interest in Kentucky trivia. There's a cab driver who dreams of being a race car driver. There's the inventor who's working on the town's solar energy problem (the hills don't allow sufficient sunlight in to power solar panels). The chief reason to read or finish reading books like this is to simply hang out with the characters. Nothing of import happens, kind of like real life.

I'd literally be more interested in a novel about a dog stuck in a tree (one of Offutt's small town developments) than follow an amateur detective who for lack of anything on TV looks into the death of a hillbilly heroin dealer. It feels credibly "small town" (I like how "ought" is spelled "ort" in one passage of dialogue) and the author's procedural detail is on point, but there are zero stakes. Mick Hardin pokes around and asks questions without any threat to his physical or existential well-being because this allows Offutt to introduce more characters. While cute, I didn't adore these characters nearly as much as the author seems to.

There's nothing remarkable here about the story or characters. Army veteran who's real observant with crime scenes. A female sheriff. Dueling hillbilly drug families. This seems like Rural Crime Fiction 101. It's every episode of Justified without Timothy Olyphant or Carla Gugino to stare at. It's most every Jack Reacher novel, albeit dialed down to a 2 without Lee Child's explosive body count or cockadoodie conspiracies. I didn't hate Shifty's Boys, I just wasn't provided any reason to continue reading it and not watch Justified.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shifty’s Boys is Offutt’s sequel to The Killing Hills and is a top-notch journey into country noir. Offutt perfectly captures the tucked-out-of-the-way society of Kentucky hill country and people’s both novels with authentic complex characters. CID Officer Mick Hardin is on a lengthy medical leave, still at home a year after the earlier novel. His sister Linda who lucked into the Sheriff’s job when the previous jobholder passed away and is now running for reelection in a county where few believed a woman could handle the job. Mick came home knowing that, with his being seldom home, his wife strayed. A year later, she now has a one year old and it isn’t Mick’s. He is sitting on the divorce papers, not knowing how to close the door on the last decade and a half of his married life. He’s shuffling around the old country where everyone knows everyone and, when the story opens he is asked by a backwoods matriarch to find out who killed her son. The official investigation isn’t going to go anywhere what with her boy being a drug dealer. Few tears are being shed for him. It’s an investigation that will lead Mick to a place he couldn’t have imagined and eventually have him questioning who he is and what he stands for. The novel though is about Mick, alone, adrift, neither belonging here or belonging there and, in the end, not knowing what good any of it was. Although the action doesn’t really pick up until later in the novel, the entire novel is compelling from start to finish.

[Lori Keeton · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded down

Chris Offutt is back with another Kentucky noir story with Mick Hardin, the Army CID officer who is recuperating from an IED injury back in his hometown of Rocksalt. In this installment, we get to know more about the characters we met in the first book, The Killing Hills and meet some new ones along the way. Mick can’t come home without a few crimes and killings occurring. Naturally, he understands the ways of the people who live in the hills comparing and contrasting them to the ones who’ve decided to move to town, like his sister Linda, the county sheriff. Offutt is skilled in setting up the authenticity of place and of the people he knows and the codes they live by.

Mick had lived with his grandfather and great-grandfather in the woods twelve miles east. It wasn’t Rocksalt specifically but clusters of people in general. Town required a social patina he was no good at, an exoskeleton of politesse. People said one thing and meant another. They became offended if you dared to be honest and direct. It was as if saying what you thought was forbidden. He preferred the forthrightness of country people and army life.

Death was a force of social leveling in the hills, a provider of intricate respect. He recalled a woman who’d married a man her parents despised in life. When he died young, they’d buried him in their family cemetery.

Hill culture didn’t traffic in the surface tedium of chatting nicely with people. She’d sent for him. He was here. It was on her now, and he’d wait until she got to the reason behind the summons.

And then Offutt’s descriptive humor shines:

That boy’s a dam missing a river.

Keen as a briar. Crazy as a soup sandwich.

Albin’s hair was trimmed in the style of a mullet, not a full-blown Kentucky Waterfall, but something more subtle.
(Yes, I had to google that one - and yes, Kentucky Waterfall mullet is real.)

But back to the story.

Offutt has given us a solid southern noir crime novel with quirky characters and a “Justified”-style plot. When the small town heroin dealer turns up dead, the city police are not too interested in investigating. Mick Hardin gets caught in the middle of the drama as Shifty Kissick has asked for his help in finding out what happened and the story ramps up with violence and revenge. The characters will mean more to you than the mystery of the murders. I, for one, noted the bits of lore that are strewn throughout and add to the Appalachian atmosphere - things like the wildlife and fauna, snakes and birds. Mick’s knowledge of these things are mind-boggling. He is a walking encyclopedia of facts especially those about the hills. You’ll still wonder if Mick will ever lighten up and laugh a little. Maybe. You’ll come back for deputy Johnny Boy Tolliver’s trivia about the state and for an incident at the local Dollar General. These things can only happen in small town America.

But for me, this one fell a little short and too “made for tv” at the end. I LOVE Country Dark and his short story collection Kentucky Straight. I suppose it’s because they are more my style - real Kentucky stories without the mystery, thriller and crime mixed in. But when book 3 comes along pretty soon, Code of the Hills, I’ll not be missing out.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a great example of a wonderful marriage of author and narrator. I love the thoughtfulness of the author and the narrator's deliverance of meaning in each sentence.

Favorite quotes:

This one is about the practical application of color: "Hospital personnel began wearing aquamarine scrubs during surgical procedures because it was the color compliment to the pink of body tissue. The combination reduced eye strain for a surgeon." Well, I never would have thought of that!

Further, "The army used olive green for standard uniforms because the color faded into darkness faster than other hues." I didn't know that either.

Then, there's the descriptive language. I love the image the author conjures in this passage: "Everything in her kitchen is blue, curtains, tablecloth, cabinets, dishes, linoleum, countertops too. It was like standing inside the sky."

[♥Milica♥ · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Crazy as a soup sandwich" is now in my vocabulary, thank you Mr Offutt!

Shifty's Boys was exactly what I was expecting it to be, but also a bit more relaxed than the first book. I felt so bad for poor Shifty though, she's someone I'd love to sit and have a chat with, she deserves the world.

If you want more of a casual, laid back mystery check this one out. But start with book one ok!! That one introduces most of the characters and makes you fall in love with them.

[Wyndy · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 “very good but not my favorite Offutt” stars.

“Linda’s cell phone rang. She answered, listened, and ended the call. “That was Johnny Boy,” she said. “He’s got a hostage situation at the Dollar General.” “

I’ve run across the term ‘rural noir’ before and think it fits the “Mick Hardin” series to a tee. In this second installment, Mick has returned to the hills of Kentucky to recover from a leg wound he suffered in an IED attack in Afghanistan and has every intention of returning to his base in Germany as soon as he’s fully healed. His sister Linda is running for sheriff, his wife Peggy has filed for divorce, and his “friend” Shifty Kissick, whose family we know from the first book runs the local heroin operation, has asked him to find out who murdered her boy ‘Fuckin’ Barney,’ now known simply as ‘Barney’ out of respect for the dead.

Mick welcomes the distraction and enlists some rich and entertaining characters to help him find Barney’s killer: Albin, a pot-smoking, race-car driver wannabe as local cabbie; Jacky Turner, the town’s “inventor” and fix-it man; Johnny Boy Tolliver, the often-bumbling deputy sheriff who’s afraid of ghosts; and Shifty’s oldest boy Raymond/Ray-Ray, a recently retired Marine with a not-so-secret secret who’s in town from California for Barney’s funeral. One thing leads to another, as it usually does in Rocksalt, and before you can blink the book is over, leaving just enough loose ends to pique our interest in the third installment, ‘Code Of The Hills.’ Chris Offutt has a wicked funny bone and a true talent for sketching these rural Kentucky people, so I’ll definitely be back for another ride around these hills with Mick. I hope his ‘63 Chevy is still around.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chris Offutt’s Mick Hardin series is pure escapism done well. I enjoyed this one almost as much as The Killing Hills, and loved revisiting so many characters that were now familiar, instead of new.

This isn’t literary genius; might not be remembered or even thought about until the next installment in the series comes out and you deliberately cast back to think of it; and it won’t make your gotta read before you die list. But, if you have a little time on your hands and want to read something fun, it is a good choice.

[Sofia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shifty's Boys is Offutt's second book with Mick Hardin who is back in Kentucky. As usual his method of escaping his own personal troubles is to involve himself in the troubles of others. So I followed him up and down the hollers and down the mines and greatly enjoyed myself.

Shifty and her Boys. All born and bred in the Appalachians. Like Mick the Appalachians are in their blood and this effects them even when far away. Would greatly love to see Ray-Ray again.

As usual Offutt's way with the pen just puts me at ease and I just relax and enjoy by book. Looking forward to more and more.


An ARC gently provided by author/publisher via Netgalley

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mick Hardin, of the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division, is back in eastern Kentucky healing from an IED bombing. His sister, Linda, is the local sheriff and running for reelection. Mick is asked by Shifty Kissick (a former girlfriend of Mick and Linda’s father) to investigate the murder of her son as the police are disinclined to expend much energy pursuing the case as Barney Kissick was the local heroin kingpin. Mick has a lot of time on his hands and decides to look into the particulars. It soon becomes clear that there was a lot more to the killing than it first appeared.

This ‘country noir’ crime thriller has an intricate plot with characters that are true to the area, transporting the reader to rural Appalachia. Clearly, the author has affection for the setting and the people that live there. I look forward to reading Offutt’s next offering in the Mick Hardin series.

[Reme · Rating 5 out of 5]

Decir que me ha encantado es quedarme corta.

En esta novela, Mick Hardin vuelve a Kentucky, a sus cerros, donde se hace cargo de otra investigación criminal. Offutt continúa con el mismo método que su primer libro, pero aquí lo expande y crea una historia mucho más intrincada y que juega mucho con la moralidad de su protagonista. También aparecen algunos de los secundarios que aparecían en el primer libro y que tanto me gustan, como Linda Hardin, la hermana de Mick y sheriff del pueblo.

Lo que más disfruto es con su narración. Me encanta lo amena, simple y directa que es. Sus descripciones de la gente, la simpleza y a la vez compleja que resultan las vidas de estos personajes que han vivido toda su vida en un pueblo pequeño rodeado de naturaleza. Sus viejas costumbres y formas de vivir. La manera que tienen de hablar y comunicarse. Las descripciones que hace de la naturaleza, de los animales que habitan en ella, que rodean el pueblo, me encantan. En como todos conviven en unión y en armonía formando un todo. Además, te lo describe de una forma tan bonita que te sumerge de lleno, me lo imagino perfectamente y mientras estoy leyendo, me he visto allí mismo.

No deja de ser una novela de suspense criminal y como tal, cumple con creces. Es un libro corto pero a Offutt no le falta ni le sobra ninguna página para escribir sobre la vida en los cerros y resolver los misterios. Su protagonista, Mick Hardin, me encanta y conecto mucho con él. Como la gente de su pueblo, parece un hombre simple pero por dentro es todo complejidad y contrariedades. Aquí se ha enfrentado a situaciones que le han hecho traicionarse a sí mismo y a lo que cree. Y me ha gustado bastante.

Qué descubrimiento tan magnífico ha sido Chris Offutt. Y no puedo esperar para leer el desenlace de esta trilogía. Mientras tanto, estoy deseando leer el resto de sus libros.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mick’s back!

“As much as he’d tried to get away, he was still bound by the hills.”

I wish I could bottle this book up and pass it around for all to take a sip. Because I don’t think I have the words to explain its power. A character said something about Mick that clicked for me though. Mick was described as having two modes: “full throttle or long pondering”. If you combine those two together, you might get an idea of what these pages feel like and how Mick operates.

Army CID officer, Mick Hardin is back home in the hills of eastern Kentucky on medical leave. He’s supposed to be healing up and staying out of the way of his sister’s re-election campaign for sheriff. But when Barney Kissick, the local heroin dealer, is found murdered in town Mick is called into action and back into the hills. A world with history, honor, and vengeance as deep and dark as the night sky. Shifty Kissick, Barney’s mother, asks Mick to investigate her son’s death because everyone is assuming drugs were to blame. But Shifty doesn’t buy it. And as soon as Mick starts stirring things up, danger comes a’ knocking at his door. What has Mick stumbled into and just how pissed is his sister going to be? :) Come see if Mick can uncover the truth and stop the bloodshed.

“Murder in the hills led to more killing, and he only cared that people had the chance to live, not die.”

I’ve missed these characters! All of ‘em and the hills themselves. But one of my favorite parts of Mr. Offutt’s writing is the way he brings the Kentucky land alive with plants, animals, smells, and sounds. The violence is offset with the peace and quiet of Mother Nature.

“Dawn had lifted like a veil. Sunlight streaming over the eastern hill threw a jagged shadow along the blacktop road, bisecting it with darkness and glare. A sudden wind exposed the velvety underside of leaves on a silver maple.”

Mick grew up in the hills. They’re a part of him. And you’ll feel it in the way he looks and talks about the land. It’s beautiful really. The way a bird will catch his eye or a smell or sound will tell him exactly where he is. It makes me wonder what Mick uses to soothe and settle his soul when he’s away from Kentucky.

In just two books, Mick Hardin has become such a strong, can’t-wait-til-we-meet-again character. He commands the page with so few words. His quiet, strength and observant ways come through in his actions and listening. You just know he’s taking it all in. I love watching him sit down with someone over coffee or a meal. I get the feeling he’s the same with everyone too—from someone he just met to an old family friend. Right from the get go, Mick introduces himself as “Jimmy Hardin’s boy”, which pulls the past right into the present moment. He lets people know where he’s from and what he’s about with that introduction. In simple, honest language and nods, Mick gets right down to the heart of the matter.

Much like Mr. Offutt himself! With short, quick moving chapters, readers get right to the mystery and mayhem. A mystery filled with Appalachia grit and love, old friends and new, and killing. You’re gonna have to read to find out who does the killing and who survives the killing.

So, in short, if you haven’t met Mick yet. Go on and get!

I can’t leave without pointing out at least one of my favorite lines….
“Them Ryans are so stuck up they’d drown in a hard rain.”

[Bandit · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m the first to review this on GR. My third read by the author. An author I apparently like more than remember.
I was reading this book with an overwhelming sense of déjà vu. It reminded me so much of something…and, now with GR handy, I realized that what it reminded me of was likely its predecessor, which I read less than a year ago and apparently almost completely forgot about.
This is odd, because I really like Offutt’s writing, so much so I’ll even read his rural noir or country crime or whatever it is exactly that he writes. I’ve heard both, but for me noir just doesn’t stretch quite that far, so let’s stick with country crime drama set in the author’s beloved Kentucky, a place he tends to get all hillbilly elegiac about.
Not at all my scene, not at all a place I’d normally want to visit even at the safe remove of an armchair, and yet Offutt makes it worth a trip. There’s such ease and humor to his writing, such innate likability to his characters…it just draws you in.
And so, there you go, once more to the hills and small towns of Kentucky with its gun-toting English language manglers. It’s all about the family in them there (one Kentuckiasm and WORD is freaking out) hills and so when not one but two sons of a local matriarch Shifty get killed, justice needs to be served. And since the local sheriff is too busy trying to get herself re-elected, it’s up to her brother, an army investigator on leave, to figure things out.
Which he does, oddly enough at his own not inconsiderable expense, all while trying to stay sober and contemplating signing divorce papers.
From what it is I can possibly remember from book one, this is very, very similar. In tone, in themes, in subject matter, etc. And the actual crime here is solved in so much shooting, it’s almost like it’s trying to compete with the new Matrix movie.
But the thing is, this book for me isn’t about the crime or the scenery, I just really enjoy Offutt’s writing. It’s so engaging, so dynamic, so fun. It goes by very quickly, and even if it’s apparently not at all memorable, it’s still plenty entertaining for the duration. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

This and more at https://advancetheplot.weebly.com/

[Truman32 · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Chris Offutt’s Shifty’s Boy’s Army investigator Mick Hardin returns to his rural Kentucky home while recuperating from a bombing injury. But alas, his recovery must wait as he is drawn into the murder of a local acquaintance. Offutt’s strong characters and fast paced story swept me away quicker than that Tsunami in 1993. Luckily, Shifty’s Boys did not leave me stranded on a desert island for 13 lonely years subsiding on a diet of coconuts and foul-tasting lizards with a volleyball as my only friend and companion. The story does a great job transporting the reader to Kentucky. You can feel the humidity and see the jean shorts in real life as you read this beauty. It transported me quicker then that time in 2006 when the transporter on the USS Enterprise was broken, and Scotty accidentally beamed me to that planet with all those Tribbles for 13 years subsiding on a diet of coconuts and pickled Tribble with a busted up phaser as my only friend and companion. Shifty is the boss of the local heroin trade. When her son is mysteriously gunned down, she asks Mick to investigate the murder. Shifty has a relationship with the Hardin family. The South is romanticized here in that all these Southern small-town folks have a code they live by, they all seem to know at least one person in every family that lives nearby, they look out for each other, and they all have a special relationship with nature. Obviously, this is all fantasy (as sure as if Kentucky was populated by elves or ogres), as the South’s horrific elected official and national rankings in education, poverty rates, infant mortality, and homicides reveal. However, it is nice to take a break from reality and be washed away in an exciting and very enjoyable fantasy. Sometimes I just want to still believe that truckdrivers are the knights of the road, and not the speeding monsters hyped up on Adderall and gleefully enjoying scaring other drivers with their bellowing airhorns. In this regard, Shifty’s Boys is a great escape, really well-written with wonderful and often funny characters.

[Marty Fried · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second book in the series, and the second one I read. I didn't remember much from the first book, and I don't think it's necessary to read it, but it's probably better if you have.

Although I wouldn't want to live there, the author makes these Kentucky backwaters sound somewhat appealing in a lot of ways. The people are, for the most part, pretty backward, the living conditions are mostly backward and run down (as are the people), but there's a directness and honesty about them that you don't usually see in the big cities. I don't know if they would act the same toward strangers, but if you're from around there, they feel more comfortable around you. So, Mick Hardin, who finds himself investigating crimes sometimes for his sister, the sheriff, the first thing he does when talking to someone is to state his name and his father's name, and maybe his grandfather.

Mick is very nonjudgmental. He's slow to disagree with anyone, knowing it could lead to trouble, even generations of conflict. He thinks everyone deserves to live, and doesn't even like to kill people who are after him. He's a pretty serious guy most of the time, and doesn't waste words, but there's a dry humor here and there that I like, same as some of the other locals. Overall, he's smart, stubborn, and often his own worst enemy. But I think he'd be a good friend to have.

One illustration of his way of doing things... there was one place where a drunk employee in a department store had a gun and claimed to have hostages. He wanted money in exchange for releasing them. Mick was there, so he got a bag, filled it with napkins from the store, added some bills from the cash register on top, and went in to talk to the guy. Found out there were no hostages, and the guy mainly wanted the money to buy something his girlfriend wanted. Mick talked him down and when the guy asked what he could say to his girlfriend, Mick told him "The truth. You did it for her. She'll appreciate that. It's what they call a grand romantic gesture. You did your best".

Before leaving, Mick took $4.00 out of his wallet and left it to pay for the napkins, and returned the bills he had used for the ruse to the cash register.

The book has a bit of violence and killing in it, but not as over-the-top as some others I've read lately. It's hard to really work up a hate for most of the bad guys, even the ones that kill people. Not that you especially like them, but Mick even feels bad about the ones he has to kill, mostly.

[♥ Sandi ❣ · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars

Book two of the Mick Hardin series - courtesy of Rocksalt, Kentucky and every back woods hill and holler. Appalachian noir, that deep Kentucky closed mouth family relationship, the one holler over brewing family-against-family war and the moving in of big city corporations who lie and take advantage of the hill people.

Mick seemed to make advancement in this novel - he completed the lifecycle of his marriage, started back to his Army base from his medical leave, believes his wounded leg is now rehabilitated, and saw his sister into her second term as County Sheriff. All that along with solving the murders of two of Shifty's sons, who were deep into drugs.

In two years Mick can leave the Army with 20 yrs seniority. That should be where we pick him up again in the next novel in this series Code of the Hills due to publish in June 2023.

[Cathrine ☯️ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 🛻🛻🛻

[John of Canada · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of those books that I was tempted to start over as soon as I finished it, and I never do rereads. I looked up Rocksalt Kentucky, and discovered that Lexington Ky is a major supplier of rock salt. There is so much to admire about Offutt's writing. I am thinking how he adds details not unlike Cormac McCarthy. He discusses inventions in clear simple detail. He obviously likes birds and describes them simply, yet intelligently, for example describing a mockingbird as an avian polyglot. There are lots of little surprises. Mick Hardin is very kind, he even worried how a store could make a profit on napkins. Offutt also has a terrific sense of humour. I was unfortunately drinking a coffee when Mick was explaining how he was injured by an exploding i.e.d. Read the book, you'll learn a lot about birds, people, and nature.

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another winner from Chris Offutt. Shifty’s Boys continues the tale of Mick Hardin, a solitary character who is both sympathetic and unreachable as a protagonist.

This is a tale of vengeance and honor, rendered in the backwoods manner that Mick grew up with and wished to escape via his military service. But Offutt knows better, and thrusts Mick into a family situation involving several sons of a tough old woman known as Shifty. The family business involves drug running and someone has murdered Barney, one of Shifty’s boys.

Home on medical leave to rehab from a duty- related injury, Mick finds himself agreeing to discover the truth and identify whomever killed Barney (and eventually, one of Barney’s brothers). All of this while Mick’s sister, the sheriff, is running for re-election and his estranged wife is pressing him to sign the divorce papers. Poor Mick hasn’t had the best of luck. Nevertheless, the man follows a strict code of conduct and, along with the last remaining brother of the deceased (a Marine called Ray ray by his friends), manages to discover a veritable hornets’ nest of trouble.

The vast majority of the book is atmospheric and leisurely paced, with action only coming near the end. No matter, Offutt writes in a way that transports the reader deep into the backwoods and hollows, where one can almost hear the cicadas and feel the forest close in around like a smothering embrace. This one isn’t as good as his earlier two novels, but fans would be well served to include it in their reading.

[debra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I so enjoy Offutt's writing that I don't compare him to himself. I may like one book more than another, but that doesn't take away from 5 starring each one.

[Jim Thomsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

SHIFTY'S BOYS does a marvelous job of having its way both ways, always. It's both "of the hills" and yet has a lightly ironic distance from them, drawing a sharp distinction between "hills" and the nearby town of Rocksalt, Kentucky. It's progressive in its politics yet finds room to breathe among the regressive personalities of its rural setting. It nods to the necessity and desirability of the law while bending to the equal necessity of breaking it all over the place, up to and including mass murder. ("Death was a force of social leveling in the hills, a provider of intricate respect."). It pokes gentle fun at the backwardness of the hill people while revering the glacial forces that made them who they are. And hard truths need to be spoken, and sometimes are, but as often as not, taciturn silence carries the day: "He was proud of her, although he’d never tell her.")

And nothing about that is contradictory, deep down where it matters, at least not in a way that will upset the fair-minded reader. That is Chris Offutt's genius, as is his ability to tell a story in a deceptively laconic, dry-humored fashion that makes the pages turn as if they were on the railing of a country porch in a pleasing light breeze. SHIFTY'S BOYS has plenty of plot to please fans of more conventional crime novels, but Offutt's ambitions, and realizations, are a cut above, and SHIFTY'S BOYS is above all a novel of character and custom and place, and the good and bad of having one foot in and one foot out of one's hometown, and one's self.

That describes Mick Hardin, who is so "of the hills" that he can gain access to even the most hostile holler in his home county simply by introducing himself with the name of his father or grandfather, and trusting that clan recognizes clan, and trusting that that recognition carries the sort of currency that gets him into places that might be harder for his sister, the sheriff, to access. Yet he's been away for a long time, a self-described Army lifer whose medical leave is almost over, and he's done little to re-establish himself at home. (As he muses: "He’d never liked town. It wasn’t Rocksalt specifically but clusters of people in general. Town required a social patina he was no good at, an exoskeleton of politesse. People said one thing and meant another. They became offended if you dared to be honest and direct. It was as if saying what you thought was forbidden. He preferred the forthrightness of country people and army life.")

In my review of THE KILLING HILLS, the novel in which we met Mick, I docked it one star was less than enamored of him as the face of a franchise, finding him to be a bland, conventional off-the-rack a**kicker of the kind found in a dozen other series, and I thought, cynically, that Offutt had engaged in an act of cynicism himself by putting what I thought was such a shopworn "dangerous unknowable man with a particular set of skills" stereotype at the front of a series.

I haven't so much changed my mind about that as much as I now see Mick as more distinctive now that that he's in a novel that feels better designed to draw out the distinctiveness of his doesn't-belong-in-either-world persona. (I still feel his sister Linda is the more colorful and interesting character, and a better candidate to carry a series, but I'll stop penalizing Offutt for not seeing things my way.)

The existential distance between Mick and his surroundings provides a useful tension that gives depth and breadth to a fairly routine plot. And that same distance draws him to others in the story that don't quite fit but are more interesting because of it:

— Jacky, the savant-like inventor genius who is content to eke out a subsistence living and be seen as the town eccentric: "Are you an inventor,” Mick said, “or an artist?” “I don’t know. What’s the difference?”);

— Raymond, the ass-kicking Marine and eldest son of a hills crime family whose preference for men doesn't keep Mick from developing a deep and brotherly blood bond with him ("You got a problem with me being gay?” Raymond said. “No. All I care about is how you are under fire");

— Sandra, the Dairy Queen-loving divorced woman marking time as a sheriff's dispatcher, who seems capable of seeing Mick as much for who he is as who he isn't, and offering him the gift of her unqualified acceptance.

All of this is rendered in Offutt's wonderful, observant prose, especially when it comes to describing life away from town:

"Brace Gifford was a man of action, even if that action consisted of sitting on his porch watching a robin’s nest in a maple."

"The kitchen table held an array of food. Soup beans simmered on the stove. There were two iron skillets with fresh cornbread, containers of fruit salad, green beans, and a large metal tray of fried chicken. Several bags of chips were piled on a counter, undoubtedly brought by single men who’d stopped at a gas station on the way over."

"Something had been gnawing at him for a couple of days, a wisp of a feeling just beyond the perimeter of his perception, intangible and swiftly retreating. Sudden awareness draped over him like a steel shawl—he was lonely. The depth of the sensation surprised him. He was accustomed to living alone, traveling alone, and working alone. He talked to his sister, listening mainly, which he supposed counted as human contact if not an actual conversation. He loved his sister. She loved him, but his presence in her house was an intrusion, and they tried to give each other plenty of latitude. He’d even taken to lowering the commode lid like she preferred, something he’d never done with his wife. Maybe he should have. Maybe they’d still be together."

"Johnny Boy turned away, his eyes glistening with tears. Mick ignored him. It was time to box his feelings up and lock them deep inside like a vault. One bad thought always led to another. Mick preferred fury to mourning."

"Raymond would want retribution. It was the code of the hills, one he tried to dissuade others from following, a path that could lead to bloodshed for generations, a path he was on himself."

"He headed east on Old US 60. Dawn had lifted like a veil. Sunlight streaming over the eastern hill threw a jagged shadow along the blacktop road, bisecting it with darkness and glare. A sudden wind exposed the velvety underside of leaves on a silver maple."

"Mick nodded. Linda had a point—he had a tendency to peck at the ground like a chicken, until the grass was gone and he was stuck with rock and dirt. Facts revealed themselves eventually, but it was wrong to use his sister as the pecking ground."

"He was glad his father died young and didn’t have to mourn the deaths of three sons, but Raymond wished he was still alive to see the gay one fighting for the family."

[Terry · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Shifty’s Boys, Offutt continues his story about Mick Hardin in a small Kentucky hill town. I liked The Killing Hills much more than this one, although Offutt does have a very readable style here as well. 3.5 stars rounded down, mostly because I didn’t care for the end of the novel.