By Dennis Fischman

S.A. Cosby, a multiple-time winner of the Anthony Awards at the World Mystery Convention, grew up in Virginia. He was influenced by Southern Gothic literature, and it shows. Another Southern writer, William Faulkner, famously wrote, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” That’s certainly true in this book, where both the hero, Sheriff Titus Crown, and Charon County, VA, his territory, are haunted by shades of racism, violence, and death.

The book shows why Cosby deserved his awards. It’s tense, tightly plotted, and revealing of racial relations in small-town rural areas in a way that only someone who knows them intimately can express.

“All the Sinners Bleed” by S.A. Cosby Flatiron Books, 2023.

As I have mentioned before in my reviews, the serial killer subgenre is not my favorite type of mystery. This one was particularly grim, with the number of young people sexually abused and murdered–and then the number of adults killed in ritualistic ways–mounting over a dozen, with at least nine named. I put up with that death toll: I didn’t enjoy it.

I also didn’t enjoy the virgin/whore dichotomy that the current and past women in Titus’ life fall into, nor the way some motivations in the book went unexplained. “Hurt people hurt people” is just not enough, because there are plenty of former victims who don’t victimize others.

I’ve read a couple of books lately (Escape Artist being the other one) where I had the same criticism: if you’re not returning to the location, there are too many characters in this book! At least 75 characters appear by name, and honestly, only Titus’ family and lover, his police officers, some of the high school students and teachers, a couple of church leaders and business owners, and a few people from his Indiana days were necessary.

When you have somebody stumble across a body (his only appearance in the book), and you not only get his name and that of the dog he was walking but the names of his wife and three children, that is too much!

What I DID like was getting to know Titus. Complicated, anguished, he is at base a good and highly moral man. Too good, in fact, to remain a law enforcement officer out in the field. By the end of the book, he is giving up being Sheriff and taking a job teaching criminology in a university. Which is a relief in some ways: maybe he and Darlene will get back together someday? And a terrible disappointment, too, because a) if all the good ones get out of policing, what will the remaining police do to us?, and b) it means we will probably not see a sequel to this book.

All that being said, I will probably go back and read one of S.A. Cosby’s other books, when I have the stomach for it. The writing, the plot, the characters, and the setting all make for a gripping read.