• Author: S.A. Cosby
• Series: Standalone
• Genre: Thriller
• Star Rating: 5 stars
• Gifted by Publisher: No

Plot: 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.

 haven’t read a thriller this dark in a very long time. Most of my mysteries tend to be cosy crime or historical crime so it’s been an age since I picked up a contemporary thriller that focuses on the darkness of humanity rather than the cosiness of English village life.

I picked this up after watching a video of an author event on TikTok and I found Cosby to be very funny and engaging. After that, I saw loads of my mutuals recommend this book so I knew it had to be my next read.

This book follows the first black sheriff of Charon County who tries to serve his community, many of which don’t support a black sheriff, and also to locate a mysterious killer who had been hiding under the radar for years. This book is full of secrets, darkness and at one point I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to finish it as Cosby really gets into the depths of how evil humanity can be.

The pillar of this book is our main character Titus Crown. A stalwart ex FBI now Sheriff who is dealing with his own personal demons finds himself in the middle of the most horrific case in his home town. Following him as he tries his hardest to follow his code of honour, respect the badge and deal with the racist part of his community was a very powerful read. He was the kind of character that you would want supporting you and having your back. I normally find ‘down and out detective’ characters can be a hard read, and sometimes quite boring, but I really enjoyed Crown as a character. Titus is a character of complexities trying to make a change in a community dead set against change.

The plot itself had me questioning if I had the mind or the stomach to finish it as Cosby gets to the core of how awful humanity can be and I was unsure if I could continue but I was so drawn in by Titus as a character that I kept on reading. This book was full of twists and turns where you truly didn’t know what was going to happen next and I found myself unable to put it down. I would read it on the bus to work and spend the entire day thinking about when I could pick it back up as I needed to know how it ended. I ended up reading the last 100 pages in one sitting.

Cosby’s writing was incredibly engaging and I have to say I loved how he ended most chapters with an amazing one liner that would send shivers down your spine. This book required a lot of nuance, detail and care as the themes in this book tackle racism, death, grief and other awful things I can’t write down. Cosby managed to get across all the complexities of both our main character, religion and our feelings towards it after death, what it is like being black in a community that was raised on racist ideology.

This was just an incredible read out of my comfort zone that I was so glad I have read.