‘The Redeemers’ is the 5th book in the Quinn Colson series by Ace Atkins and because of the character development over the course of the series, the books are best read in order.
Quinn Colson has just been voted out as the sheriff of Tibbehah County. He has spent much of his time as sheriff trying to shut down Johnny Stagg’s shady business dealings and now Stagg has pulled in enough favours to have Quinn voted out. The new sheriff is a jolly placid guy – not exactly what the county needs.
Larry Cobb runs the local sawmill. He has never trusted banks, so the fortune he has amassed is in a safe in his house. When he refuses to pay some contractors, they decide to take their revenge by raiding the safe. They are both pretty stupid and the guys they hire to help them are even more stupid. The whole safe raid escapade goes comically wrong and results in the shooting of a deputy.
What the thieves don’t realise is that there is information in Cobb’s safe that could have a profound effect on the future of Tibbehah County.
Larry Cobb wants his money back. The sheriff’s department want to catch the shooters. Stagg wants to hide the information from the safe. Quinn and his federal colleague want the information that will finally put an end to Stagg’s hold over the area.
While all this is going on, Quinn’s relationship with Anna Lee is moving forward, Quinn’s sister Caddy is trying to recover from yet another descent into drug induced oblivion, Quinn’s father continues to try to make amends with his family and both Quinn and Lillie Virgil try to decide if they want to continue living in the town of Jericho.
There was a lot happening in this novel but probably less of it directly affecting Quinn than in some of the earlier books in the series.
As usual the characters were excellent. The group of thieves were almost comic in their stupidity. I also enjoyed getting deeper into the lives of both Caddy and Lillie.
This is not my favourite book in the series, but was still pretty good and I look forward to future instalments. ‘The Innocents‘
Book Published 2015