#3 – All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby – Best Reads of 2023

In last year’s Best Reads list I talked about how S.A. Cosby, a Virginia-born and -based author of Southern Gothic crime fiction, was becoming a regular in my reading stack even though over-the-top violent thrillers haven’t really been my style. What Cosby brings to the table is a landscape I know and love and people who are too often hidden in plain sight. And the context of his fiction is both as ancient as the Chesapeake and as contemporary as a black sheriff in a rural Southern backwater county.

In All the Sinners Bleed, Titus Crown is that sheriff in fictional Charon County, which bears strong resemblances to the Middle Peninsula place where Cosby grew up. The author drops us down in the middle of a law enforcement nightmare—an active shooter in the local school. But the story quickly opens up to expose the seamier sides of this ‘quiet’ little corner of the world. There is sadism and corruption. Casual and overt racism. Failing institutions and imploding church leaders. And in the midst of it—some very human characters motivated by strong ideals.

Cosby is prolific and his other 2023 offering, My Darkest Prayer, could easily have made this list as well. You can read my full review of Razorblade Tears, which made my 2022 list, here. I’ll be awaiting his expected 2024 book.

Earlier picks in this series:

#4 – The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

#5 – Lone Women by Victor Lavalle

#6 – I, Julian by Claire Gilbert

#7 – Holy the Firm by Annie Dillard

#8 – The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer

#9 – Simon the Fiddler by Paulette Jiles

#10 – 24 Hours in Charlottesville by Nora Neus