Ce sont des histoires de mineurs et de sorciers, de joueurs et de cultivateurs de marijuana, des contes tragiques et étranges enracinés dans le réel.
Le kentucky est vu et raconté sans le vernis de la nostalgie: une petite communauté anonyme des appalaches, trop petite pour être qualifiée de ville, un endroit oú réclamer une éducation scolaire est la marque d'une arrogance impie et chercher de l'eau avec une baguette de coudrier, une occupation normale et légitime; oú chasser n'est pas un sport mais un moyen de survie.

** LONGLISTED FOR THE CWA GOLD DAGGER **

Mick Hardin, a combat veteran now working as an Army CID agent, is home on a leave that is almost done. His wife is about to give birth, but they aren't getting along. His sister, newly risen to sheriff, has just landed her first murder case, and local politicians are pushing for city police or the FBI to take the case. Are they convinced she can't handle it, or is there something else at work? She calls on Mick who, with his homicide investigation experience and familiarity with the terrain, is well-suited to staying under the radar. As he delves into the investigation, he dodges his commanding officer's increasingly urgent calls while attempting to head off further murders. And he needs to talk to his wife.

The Killing Hills is a novel of betrayal - sexual, personal, within and between the clans that populate the hollers - and the way it so often shades into violence. Chris Offutt has delivered a dark, witty, and absolutely compelling novel of murder and honor, with an investigator-hero unlike any in fiction. Lire la suite Fermer