All the Sinners Bleed

The fourth novel by acclaimed crime writer S.A. Cosby opens with a pair of all-too-familiar tragedies: a school shooting and the subsequent death of a young Black man at the hands of local cops. But from there, this Southern gothic thriller heads in an entirely unexpected direction, as the initial burst of violence gives way to an investigation into a masked cabal caught on video torturing and killing Black teenagers. It’s a grim premise, but Cosby filters it through the humanizing perspective of the first Black sheriff in the small Virginia town where the murders take place—a brave, smart, and tenacious hero with regrets in his past, a big question mark in his future, and a burning need for redemption in the present. All the Sinners Bleed is the rare detective story that’s well aware of how racist policing muddies the morality of cop protagonists, and is a book that will leave you breathlessly turning pages until its final showdown. —Judy Berman

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