The Redeemers

Bestseller Atkins’s weak fifth crime novel featuring Afghan-veteran-turned-lawman Quinn Colson (after 2014’s The Forsaken) finds Quinn in his last days as sheriff of Mississippi’s Tibbehah County, having lost the last election to a much less competent man. His loyal deputy, Lillie Virgil, accompanies him on a rescue mission to South Memphis, where the judicious use of an ax handle enables Quinn to free his drug-addicted sister, Caddy, from some very bad company. Meanwhile, an inept group of crooks plot revenge on a man who complained about some work one of them did for him by breaking into the safe in his house. Action junkies may lose patience with the book’s slow first half, which is replete with Colson family dynamics. Besides trying to get Caddy to become serious about recovery, Quinn must deal with his dysfunctional father. Things pick up in the concluding sections, but the characters lack depth this time out. Agent: Esther Newberg, ICM. (July)