The Reluctant Sheriff

by Chris Offutt

Overview

Master storyteller Chris Offutt’s acclaimed crime series has been praised by Ian Rankin as “righteous Kentucky noir with top notes of Daniel Woodrell and S. A. Cosby,” and in this breakneck new novel, sheriff Mick Hardin navigates the treacherous terrain of a town’s festering secrets and the violent forces who want to keep them hidden

Lauded as a “masterclass in the craft of crime fiction” (CrimeReads), Chris Offutt’s beloved and critically acclaimed Mick Hardin series is an atmospheric, tightly crafted testament to Southern noir. The Reluctant Sheriff is a dark, bracing return to the hills of eastern Kentucky where secrets roil beneath the surface, and nothing and no one stays in the past for long.

Mick Hardin never wanted to be sheriff. An ex-Army CID officer, he’s supposed to be retired—or he was until his sister, Linda, was shot in the line of duty, requiring him to step in as interim sheriff while she recovered. Now he’s stuck in Rocksalt, the place he was most hoping to escape.

Back in uniform, Mick is chafing at the sudden dissolution of his retirement plans, wearied by the petty squabbles of Rocksalt’s townsfolk. It’s all business as usual, until the murder of a local bar owner draws an unlikely suspect who threatens to fan the flames of Mick’s past. When two more bodies turn up, seemingly unconnected to the first, Mick is forced to reckon with the mysterious circumstances of a case not so open-and-shut as everyone believes. Meanwhile, Linda is slowly healing when a familiar business tycoon with a vested interest in her returning as sheriff makes it difficult for her to remain on the sidelines.

Unflinching and devilishly compulsive, The Reluctant Sheriff is an explosive thriller confirming Chris Offutt as a Southern writer of muscular prose and unrivaled talent.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802164032
Publisher:	Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Publication date:	03/25/2025
Series:	The Mick Hardin Novels , #4
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Chris Offutt is the author of two collections of short stories, three memoirs, and six novels, including four in the Mick Hardin series which began with The Killing Hills. His books have been translated into twelve languages and won four international awards in France. He wrote screenplays for True Blood, Weeds, and Treme. He is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, an NEA grant, and a Lannan Fellowship. He received an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for “prose that takes risks.” His work is included in many anthologies and textbooks, including Best American Short Stories, Best American Essays, Best American Food Writing, and Modern American Memoirs. He grew up in the hills of eastern Kentucky and lives in Iowa City, Iowa.

Editorial Reviews

11/01/2024

Ex-army CID officer Mick Hardin is still in Rocksalt, KY, although he always wanted to retire to Corsica. His sister Linda, the county sheriff, is recuperating from a gunshot wound suffered in the line of duty, and Mick is filling in as sheriff, with no backup. He sent the previous deputy, Johnny Boy Tolliver, to Corsica (a confusing storyline choice) after he was involved in a killing. While Johnny Boy fumbles around blindly there, Mick is reluctantly drawn into a case involving the shooting of a bar owner. The connection is personal to Mick, and he'd rather not be involved, but his take on the case is different than the local police chief's. When more men are shot, Mick's knowledge of the locals lets him dig out the truth. Then a violent confrontation in the woods around Mick's cabin brings together a small group under Mick's leadership. They're outgunned as they take on a group of outsiders from Detroit, but Mick uses his skills from his years in the woods and in war zones to lead his team to victory. VERDICT The sequel to Code of the Hills is an atmospheric, exquisitely written Southern noir.—Lesa Holstine

Library Journal

★ 2025-03-08
The fourth in Offutt’s Mick Hardin series is another quick-paced, quick-witted, twisty winner.

The draftee lawman is of course former Army investigator Mick Hardin, his hopes for rural Kentucky retirement thwarted again: He’s pressed into service while his sister, the sheriff, recovers from a gunshot wound. His first call (gloriously) is a domestic incident that takes him to a backyard yurt where he tries a tarot-reader’s kombucha and dispenses justice with a side of horse sense. Then a bar owner whose tavern sits astride the boundary between the town of Rocksalt and county jurisdiction is murdered, shot three times. It seems that Mick has dodged this one: The corpse sprawls in the parking lot, which lies inside the town line, and he works for the county. But he’s drawn in when his ex-wife, irresistible still despite everything, asks him to intervene; the accused, who argued with the bar owner hours earlier, is the man she left Mick for—and now father to her two kids. Alongside the quickly proliferating complications of that case and a second double killing that seems related, Offutt intersperses chapters catching up with ex-deputy Johnny Boy Tolliver, whom Mick has sent into secret exile on Corsica to recover from the trauma that ended the previous book,Code of the Hills (2023). With aid from a mysterious and dangerous ally of Mick’s, the unworldly Kentucky-boy expat adjusts to life in foreign climes—and finds that Corsica and the Appalachian hills have more in common than he’d have guessed. The book’s final quarter has too much violent, standard mayhem, but for the most part this novel is another propulsive delight, with indelible characters, crisp dialogue, and Offutt’s usual masterful command of his setting and of the folkways and thinking of the people who live there.

More delightful, sun-dappled Kentucky noir.

Kirkus Reviews

Praise for The Relcutant Sheriff:

A Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine Best Book of the Year

“Another quick-paced, quick-witted, twisty winner . . . [a] propulsive delight, with indelible characters, crisp dialogue, and Offutt’s usual masterful command of his setting and of the folkways and thinking of the people who live there.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Chapter by chapter [Offutt] ratchet[s] up the suspense levels until just before the snapping point. A very well-rendered action novel, The Reluctant Sheriff is sure to appeal to Jack Reacher fans.”—Bruce Tierney, BookPage

“Simply wonderful. Offutt, a native of Kentucky, writes about the area’s people and places lovingly, compassionately, and, when the moment calls for it, humorously . . . The novel is a lovely balance of character and story, and it is, frankly, impossible to imagine anyone not falling a little bit in love with the people of Rocksalt.”—David Pitt, Booklist 

“Atmospheric, exquisitely written Southern noir.”—Lesa Holstine, Library Journal

“Prepare for some tasty Kentucky noir with the arrival of The Reluctant Sheriff.”—Crime Fiction Lover

Praise for Code of the Hills:

“[A] terrific series.”—Boston Globe

“Another welcome slice of rural Kentucky noir.”—The Times (UK)

“Offutt’s storytelling captures the authentic spirit of Southern rural communities. There is colloquial language. There’s a little gossip. There’s atmosphere, too. Code of the Hills is consuming, both as a thriller and as a story about Southern life and family.”—Bradley Sides, Chapter 16

“Offutt once again demonstrates his command of the detective form, delivering well-plotted satisfactions that still spurn cliché. His prose expertly conveys a blend of child-like wonder at the ragged beauties of the Appalachian hills with deep pessimism over humanity’s awful capacities. Less about elaborate conspiracies or a fathomless underworld, Code of the Hills puts the naïve intimacies, pathetic pettiness, and moral dilemmas of its subjects under the microscope. The conclusion is quiet but startling, with an emotional weight belying its calm surface.”—Walker Minot, Shelf Awareness

“The characters are folks you can identify with, the style is honest and captivating, and the stories are always amazing.”—Vishwesh Bhatt, Garden & Gun

“Thought-provoking . . . The story combines action and humor in just the right proportions . . . The dialogue of the South and the attitudes on the Detroit streets all ring true in this tightly written novel. The contrast between the two worlds Mick must inhabit is well-drawn . . . This relatively short novel will . . . entertain the reader through to the end.”—Deadly Pleasures

“Excellent Kentucky noir—Offutt’s third Mick Hardin novel is the best yet . . . 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.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“In Offutt’s third Hardin title . . . Mick continues to be a wonderful character—strong, resilient, compassionate—and here we see him very much in family-man mode, a man who is deeply concerned for his sister but also a man who values a close-knit community. Offutt is from Kentucky and often writes about it . . . Rocksalt is as much a character as its people, and the author writes about them all with the kind of intimacy and perceptiveness that comes from a long and ardently observant association. More Mick Hardin stories, please.”—Booklist

“The writing in the follow-up to Shifty’s Boys is as beautifully descriptive of the scenes in Detroit as in the Kentucky hills. Offutt’s Mick Hardin novels are powerful books that feature characters with questionable ethics.”—Lesa Holstine, Library Journal, starred review

“Kentucky noir, with a twist. Or two or three. Offutt delivers a dirty, dangerous, suspenseful, page-turning tale that takes us from the vengeful Kentucky hill country to the gun-ridden streets of Detroit and back again. He plays with the conventions of the genre as well by making character and storytelling higher priorities than plot . . . each chapter functions as a deftly written short story. It’s a pleasure to read . . . You have a treat in store.”—Reckon Review

From the Publisher