All the Sinners Bleed is a crime-thriller novel that uses a police procedural point of view.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The setting is in small rural town in the Southern states.\u00a0\u00a0 The protagonist (Titus Crown) is a black sheriff in a community where the divide between whites and blacks has a long, troubled history.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The strongest part of the book is the depiction of the cross-culture integration of working people, right-wing religious followers, the antebellum white class, racist extremists, equality advocates, and average citizens terrorized by a psycho-killer.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Bad things happen in Charon (as the name might suggest) and it is up to the police to stop a series of killings.\u00a0\u00a0 Crown has an FBI background so he doggedly follows sparse clues, but the killer is elusive.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As a character, the killer is unknown and formidable, leaving few clues, except for religious extremist messages and threats.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This is the weakest part of the story – a faceless killer that is hard to understand and we are left to decide if he is a believable character or not.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There is an action-packed climax and most of our questions are answered.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The epilogue seems fitting.<\/p>\n
Titus Crown is a strong character, but the supporting characters are less well-developed and some seem stereotypical.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The story is full of gruesome killings and dark elements that seem a bit arbitrary.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A master mystery writer develops all the key characters and provides insights into motivations, opportunities, and means, but there is little of those writing crime story fundamentals in this book.<\/p>\n
It can be read as a crime thriller with an interesting setting, but it can only be recommended with reservations.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [rating 4\/5 stars]<\/p>\n