All the Sinners Bleed by S. A. (Shawn Andre) Cosby
In his Library of Congress National Book Festival discussion of All the Sinners Bleed, S. A. Cosby mentions how impactful it was to him to have made President Obama’s summer reading lists: once for Razorblade Tears (2022) and once for All the Sinners Bleed (2023). He admits: I’m gonna say that the rest of my life. I’m gonna get pulled over for speeding, and the policeman is going to ask, “Sir, do you know how fast you’re going?” And I’m going to answer: “No, but I was on Obama’s summer reading list.”
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That said, there are plenty of reasons why this novel is a favorite of many besides President Obama. First, there is the small-town Southern setting, introduced immediately in the Prologue.
Charon County was founded in bloodshed and darkness.
Literally and figuratively.
Even the name is enveloped in shadows and morbidity. Legend has it the name of the county was supposed to be Charlotte or Charles County, but the town elders waited too late and those names were already taken by the time they decided to incorporate their fledging encampment. As the story goes, they just moved their finger down the list of names until they settled on Charon. Those men, weathered as whitleather with hands like splitting mauls, bestowed the name on their new town with no regard to its macabre nature. Or perhaps they just liked the name because a river flowed through the county and emptied into the Chesapeake like the River Styx. [p. 1]
Another reason to love this book is the author’s realistic depiction of evil: not as “Dracula in a cloak or the werewolf waiting for you outside under the moonlight,” but as anyone with “an absence of empathy or the inability to care.” In the novel, the protagonist Titus Crown states that killers “aren’t myths. They ain’t Hannibal Lector or Red John or the Mastermind. They are just killers. Nothing more, nothing less.” [p. 148]
Mr. Cosby’s development of Titus Crown also stands as one of the amazing features of this book. As the author notes, Sheriff Crown is a character who cares about the least of us and as the first Black Sheriff of Charon County, he is willing to put his life on the line for everyone. He is willing to die for those who do not even like him. In the novel, Titus Crown states that:
“George Orwell wrote that we sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who do us harm. I just want a sheriff’s department that makes sure those rough men don’t visit violence on the people they are supposed to keep safe.” [p. 28]
Sheriff Crown explains how he became a force for good in his town:
When Jamal Addison had first approached him about running for sheriff after Emmet Thompson had gotten pulled over by Cooter Bennings and ended up being beaten to within an inch of his life, he’d gone to the cemetery to talk it over with his mother. Under the mournful pine trees that stood sentry over his mother’s grave he’d sworn that he’d change things. Change himself. He’d seen what the width of the thin blue line could hide, and it sickened him. Almost as much as what he’d done, no matter the provocation, sickened him. He’d run for sheriff with the weight of a promise to a spirit on his shoulders. [p. 29]
The novel doesn’t shy away from depicting the deep-seated racism and lingering effects of the past in the Southern community, making it a powerful commentary on social issues.
Harold Bigelow met him at the door when he got to the Maynard Funeral Home. Maynard’s was the funeral home most white people in the county used. Spencer and Sons was the one most Black folks patronized. Titus thought the only place where segregation was practiced without reproach besides the church on Sunday morning was a funeral home. Both were the last bastions of Ole Southern social conventions. [p. 53]
The author doesn’t like to put labels on his novels, but he does agree with those reviewers who have categorized All the Sinners Bleed as Southern Gothic or Southern Noir. He defines Southern Gothic as a story that is dependent on the characters’ connection to the South: “…to the land, the religion, to the innerconnectivity that exists in small towns, that sort of tapestry that ties everybody together.” He states that small-town life can be great, beautiful, that everyone in town knows you; or it can be scary for the same reason–everyone in the town knows you! That brings us to Southern Noir, which introduces a crime being committed in a place where you cannot get away from the people that you have hurt. As in any good noir, everyone is an enemy and a suspect.
Finally, readers will love All the Sinners Bleed because it is a gripping and suspenseful modern serial killer mystery. It is a police procedural that “crackles along with each new clue and obstacle.” In my opinion, S.A. Cosby is the best crime writer to emerge in the last five years and he is brilliant at combining political and historical themes with remarkable characters, unforgettable settings, and a spellbinding plot. I highly recommend this book, and any others Cosby writes.
Check Amazon for more on this book I love.
