Shifty's Boys

Mick Hardin is an Army CID officer home on leave, recovering from an IED attack, when a body is found in the centre of town. It's Barney Kissick, the local heroin dealer, and the city police see his death 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 appears. 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, with 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.



Chris Offutt is the author of the short-story collections Kentucky Straight and Out of the Woods, the novels The Good Brother, Country Dark and The Killing Hills, and three memoirs: The Same River Twice, No Heroes, and My Father, the Pornographer. His work has appeared in Best American Short Stories and Best American Essays, among many other places. He has written screenplays for Weeds, True Blood, and Treme, and has received fellowships from the Lannan and Guggenheim foundations.



'The writing is top-notch, shot through with menace and melancholy'



'Visceral description, tight dialogue and rattling action... a breakneck-paced, utterly enthralling total package'



'Chris Offutt's mastery of sense of place is still in full bloom'



'Another wonderfully atmospheric slice of Appalachian noir'



Offutt's powerful follow-up to The Killing Hills is just as rich in atmospherics and a master-class in the craft of crime fiction