All The Sinners Bleed

S.A Cosby has been on my radar for awhile and I finally picked up this book to see what all the fuss was about. I jumped into this southern crime fiction blind, and it was one helluva good ride.

The main character, Sheriff Titus Crown is a fantastic main character and the heart of this book. A former FBI agent, Titus is now the first Black Sheriff in his home county of Charon, Virginia and not all residents are happy that he was elected. His skills are put to the test after a local school shooting reveals a dark and horrifying series of crimes against Black children. Titus is a wonderfully complex character with a complicated family life, his own personal demons, and an interesting array of skills he learned as an FBI agent. I love how he stands up for his convictions and handles the backlash he experiences from some residents over his new role as sheriff. 

But there were several times when I wasn't sure this book was a good fit for me. I almost DNF'd it because while I love a dark, gritty thriller and normally I'm okay with descriptions of gruesome crime scenes, reading crimes against children is often where I draw the line.  

Instead of calling it quits, I took several breaks while reading and I'm glad I didn't DNF it. There's a lot going on in this book with subplots and a very large cast of characters both of which sometimes overshadowed the main plot, but Cosby's writing is strong, and he kept enticing me back with his memorable main character and how he incorporated themes of racism, differing views of religion, social injustice, and the on-going effects of trauma which gave this book incredible depth.

Not for the faint of heart, this is a gruesome and intense, but compelling, edge-of-your-seat hunt for a sadistic serial killer and will appeal to fans who enjoy police procedurals with strong social themes and who aren't afraid of grisly crimes. 

My Rating: 4 stars

Author: S.A Cosby

Genre: Thriller

Type and Source: Hardcover from public library

Publisher: Flatiron Books

First Published: June 6, 2023

Book Description from GoodReads: A Black sheriff. A serial killer. A small town ready to combust.

Titus Crown is the first Black sheriff in the history of Charon County, Virginia. In recent decades, Charon has had only two murders. After years of working as an FBI agent, Titus knows better than anyone that while his hometown might seem like a land of moonshine, cornbread, and honeysuckle, secrets always fester under the surface.

Then a year to the day after Titus’s election, a school teacher is killed by a former student and the student is fatally shot by Titus’s deputies. Those festering secrets are now out in the open and ready to tear the town apart.

As Titus investigates the shootings, he unearths terrible crimes and a serial killer who has been hiding in plain sight, haunting the dirt lanes and woodland clearings of Charon. With the killer’s possible connections to a local church and the town’s harrowing history weighing on him, Titus projects confidence about closing the case while concealing a painful secret from his own past. At the same time, he also has to contend with a far-right group that wants to hold a parade in celebration of the town’s Confederate history.

Powerful and unforgettable, All the Sinners Bleed confirms S. A. Cosby as “one of the most muscular, distinctive, grab-you-by-both-ears voices in American crime fiction” (The Washington Post).