All the Sinners Bleed: A Novel

Southern master storyteller S.A. Cosby returns, following Blacktop Wasteland (2020) and Razorblade Tears (2021), both optioned for film, returns with his latest Southern Noir page-turner, ALL THE SINNERS BLEED. A riveting cat-and-mouse twisted game between a White religious killer and the first Black sheriff of a small rural Virginia town.

Titus Crown was born in Charon County, VA, founded in bloodshed and darkness, literally and figuratively. A former FBI agent, he returns to the Chesapeake Bay area to take care of his father.

Recently elected Sheriff Titus Crown is on the case —justice and vengeance—White supremacists, racists, bigots, and murderers.

He becomes Charon's first Black Sheriff and deals with the usual crimes. However, on the anniversary of Titus's election, a former student walks into the local school and shoots Mr. Spearman, a white teacher, in the classroom before being shot by his deputies.

The shooter and the victim are connected to abuses targeting Black children. After they get into Spearman's phone, there are photos and videos, and in addition, there is a third masked man, and the madman is still out there—a mysterious serial killer on the loose consisting of gruesome crimes involving Scripture and religion.

Seven Black children had disappeared from the area over the past several years. Things get complicated and intense— tension turns to action-packed high adrenaline. From hate and racism, religious connections to a church, and messages carved in their bodies.

~Titus's ex enters the picture to interview him for her true crime podcast. ~A far-right group is pushing for a parade to celebrate the town's Confederate history. ~A secret from Titus's past haunts him. ~The bodies pile up, and the killer is taunting Titus. Titus has his work cut out to attain justice for the victims and restore the town.

ALL THE SINNERS BLEED is rich in place and character. Razor-sharp, gritty, intelligent, emotional, a riveting Southern rural, small-town police procedural/crime thriller. From family, trauma, grief, violence, injustice, and faith.

Dark and complex, beautifully written with lyrical prose. Thought-provoking, action-packed, and highly entertaining. Southern fiction at its finest. My first book by the author, and I look forward to reading his backlist.

AUDIOBOOK: I read the e-book and listened to the audiobook by Adam Lazarre-White for an intense Southern Gothic murder mystery that blends race, politics, religion, and small-town procedurals. The performance was outstanding, and I highly recommend the audiobook.

#JDCMustReadBooks

All The Sinners Bleed by S. A. Cosby evokes aspects of 'In the Heat of the Night' in terms of racial tensions and the search for truth amid dark secrets and blatant deception. It's the kind of thing that could be ripped from the headlines of today yet resonates back through generations past. A page turner that keeps you guessing and then leaves you rushing to finish while trying to pace yourself to make it last. It's that good!

I've been a fan of author S. A. Cosby since reading Blacktop Wasteland. He's one of the best, most original writers of crime fiction to come along in quite some time. His writing invites comparisons to such masters as Walter Mosley and Joe R. Lansdale as well as the more contemporary works of Dennis Lehane. Cosby has social conscience, sharp wit, and knows how to tell a good story.

This book is a bit different than what he's written before; his previous books were more gritty, in your face crime fiction (at its best I might add), rough men and women in rough circumstances living hard lives. All The Sinners Bleed is more of a literary thriller, the story is bigger, there's more nuance, some of the characters are less obvious... Wolves in sheep's clothing who are all the more dangerous for it. I absolutely loved this book. If you like a good dark thriller with a conscience that doesn't beat you over the head with its message then this one is for you. If you like a gritty crime story you'll still enjoy it.

Highly recommended!

Cosby is a very talented writer. His protagonist, Titus Crowne, is very likable and compelling. As the first African-American sheriff in a small Virginia town he is called to a school shooting. The SWAT team kills the young shooter before Titus can talk him down. The youth murdered a beloved teacher, but as Titus explores the case, he find the teacher had a dark side. He and the shooter were part of a three person torture/murder group that killed Black teens. Titus must find the identities of the victims and the third killer. Each possible clue leads to another graphic killing, which i started to skim over because i felt the descriptions too gratuitous. When the killer is finally revealed, I had to reread the solution, because the killer didn't appear earlier in the book, just clues to his identity. Titus would make a great central character in a series. But the author should tone down the violence and concentrate building better clues and suspects in the plot line.