Review: All the Sinners Bleed by S. A. Cosby

 

All the Sinners Bleed is S.A. Cosby's fourth standalone novel, and I'm sad to say that I never fully engaged with this one, primarily because it seems to lack almost all of the subtlety evident in Cosby's earlier novels.

Sheriff Titus Crown is the first black sheriff in the history of his  Virginia county, and he is still finding it a bit hard to settle into a job he never really expected he would have in his hometown even after a career with the FBI. He knows that some in the community will never accept a black man in such a high position of authority, and he knows that there is really very little he can ever do to change their minds. 

But that's not even close to being Sheriff Crown's biggest problem after he is suddenly confronted with a school shooting in which a young black man kills a beloved school teacher before himself being gunned down by deputies in front of the school. Crown's investigation leads to the discovery that several black teenagers have been tortured and murdered in his county without anyone even noticing. Equally horrifying is Crown's discovery that there is still an active serial killer out there somewhere threatening not only every young black person in the county, but also Titus Crown himself and everyone he personally holds dear. 

The plot has all the makings of a rip-roaring crime novel, and Cosby executes it well, disguising the identity of the serial killer right up to the end of the novel - although for readers who take pride in solving the crime before the Big Reveal, I'm not sure that enough clues are given to make that likely in this case. And Titus Crown is a very sympathetic character right from the beginning, although early on he does comes dangerously close to being too good to be true. So why did I not enjoy this one as much as the three Cosby novels that precede it?

Because it's preachy and heavy-handed when addressing racial issues and race relations. Rather than send the same messages, and make the exact same points, in the subtle manner Cosby managed it in his earlier novels, he beats readers over the head with it in All the Sinners Bleed. At one point near the end of the book, three chapters in a row become almost boring because of that technique, and all I could think of was getting past them to see who the killer is. And that's a shame, because Cosby's other novels left me thinking about the issues he addresses in them. This one not so much. Too, I can't help but notice that this one has more than its share of stereotypical characters, just one more thing that makes All the Sinners Bleed less believable and emotionally touching than previous Cosby work. 

I'm disappointed more than anything else, I suppose, because I don't see a lot here that will make All the Sinners Bleed stand out from the crowd in the long run.