All The Sinners Bleed – S.A. Cosby

“Terrible people can do good things sometimes. But they like doing the terrible things more.”

What an excellent read this was. Intense, exciting, and at its center, a former FBI agent elected the first Black sheriff of Charon County, Virginia. At first, a school shooting that claims the life of a beloved school teacher, but this leads to the discovery that there’s a serial killer living in their town, carrying out brutal and grisly murders. And while the story is thrilling and keeps the reader turning the pages, the heart of the story is its depiction of small town rural America, the struggles of Sheriff Titus Crowne (conflicted, full of quiet anger), and the interactions (volatile, tense) among the white and Black residents. Crosby tackles issues of racism, white supremacy, religious fundamentalism, and violence skilfully. 

“The moment he announced his candidacy he had made a choice to live in a no-man’s-land between people who believed in him, people who hated him because of his skin color, and people who believed he was a traitor to his race. He tried his best to stand on the border of that undiscovered country, bloodied but unbowed.”

This was my first venture into Crosby’s work, and I was just floored by it. I can’t wait to see what his other books are like.