Code of the Hills

FROM AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR CHRIS OFFUTT.

'Excellent Kentucky noir — Offutt's third Mick Hardin novel is the best yet.' — Kirkus

An explosive return to the mayhem of the Kentucky hills, Code of the Hills is a harrowing novel of family — of what we're willing to do to protect and avenge the ones we love.

Mick Hardin is back in the hills of Kentucky. He'd planned to touch down briefly before heading to France, marking the end to his twenty-year Army career.

In Rocksalt, his sister Linda the sheriff is investigating the murder of Pete Lowe, a sought-after mechanic at the local racetrack. After another body is found, Linda and her deputy Johnny Boy Tolliver wonder if the two murders are related.

Linda steps into harm's way just as a third body turns up and Mick ends up being deputised again.

The dark, gripping, and propulsive thriller of murder and secrets in Rocksalt, Kentucky where little is as it seems.

'This is a marvellous series… These have become must-reads for me and I enjoy every minute of the reading experience' Deadly Pleasures

'Beautifully descriptive... Offutt's Mick Hardin novels are powerful books that feature characters with questionable ethics.' Library Journal

'Righteous Kentucky noir... I gulped it down, relishing the burn' — Ian Rankin on Shifty's Boys



Chris Offutt is the author of the short-story collections Kentucky Straight and Out of the Woods, the novels The Good Brother, Country Dark, The Killing Hills, Shifty's Boys and three memoirs. His work has appeared in Best American Short Stories and Best American Essays. He has written screenplays for Weeds, True Blood, and Treme, and has received fellowships from the Lannan and Guggenheim foundations.



'This is a marvelous series that plays on the author’s skillful prose and deep knowledge of the language and customs of rural Kentucky. These have become must-reads for me and I enjoy every minute of the reading experience'



'Offutt once again beautifully captures both the roughness and the generosity of the inhabitants of Rocksalt, both the menace and the beauty of the eastern Kentucky landscape. The dialogue is a highlight, consistently sharp, quick, and funny; in that, Offutt is rapidly becoming a rural-noir rival to greats like Elmore Leonard. Another love letter to Appalachia with a high body count. Another bloody delight'



'Excellent Kentucky noir — Offutt's third Mick Hardin novel is the best yet'



'Righteous Kentucky noir with top notes of Daniel Woodrell and SA Cosby. I gulped it down, relishing the burn'



'In elegant, economical prose, Shifty’s Boys is an accomplished addition to the ranks of country noir.'



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



'Chris Offutt's mastery of sense of place is still in full bloom' - Times (Thriller Book of the Month)



'[The Killing Hills] Violent and funny and invoking a sense of place I haven't encountered in a long long time. Chris Offutt's Appalachian noir really is something very special. Highly recommended'