Mick Hardin is back! Code of the Hills is Chris Offutt’s third novel featuring Hardin, a product of the Kentucky hills. Offutt’s writing style is economical in these books, but it’s beautiful and descriptive, and the reader never doubts that Offutt knows this land intimately.

Mick has just retired from the army at 39, and he returns home to Rocksalt, Kentucky where his sister, Linda, is the sheriff. Neither of them were good at maintaining a close relationship, but “They were loyal in the way of the hills.” And, that’s the message of the book, the code of the hills. Linda says as sheriff she’s learned everything isn’t black and white. “What’s lawful, what’s justice, and what’s best for the community. Sometimes they overlap but not often enough.”

When Pete Love is shot dead, Linda sends her deputy, Johnny Boy, to Bluestone Speedway to talk with people. Love was the best mechanic at the track. But, Pete had a new hobby, and a new rooster. He was involved with cockfighting. When Johnny Boy goes to talk to Hack Darvis about the cockfighting, he finds him dead, too. Linda’s call at another house ends up with another man dead, and Linda in the hospital in critical condition. Johnny Boy is now a reluctant sheriff, so he deputizes Mick, who has a conflict of interest in investigating his sister’s shooting. But, he also has a strong interest in finding the person who shot her. And, Mick admits he has that hill-bred instinct for vengeance.

That instinct sends him to Detroit. He can survive on the streets after his time in Afghanistan, but within six hours he owes favors to two different men, a different way of surviving than in the Kentucky hills. He finds answers, but he knows his answers might not satisfy others. And, soon after he returns, Johnny Boy’s search in the past leads him to an answer he might not be able to live with.

Situational ethics. As in the last book, Shifty’s Boys, the code of the hills is a little different. Are Mick’s solutions legal? What about Johnny Boy’s problems? Just a reminder that Offutt’s characters have learned lessons about family, and what’s important. Linda acknowledged it herself before she was shot. “What’s lawful, what’s justice, and what’s best for the community. Sometimes they overlap but not often enough.” Mick Hardin is just doing his best to honor two of those – justice, and what’s best for the community. Code of the Hills is a powerful reminder of Mick Hardin’s own code.

Chris Offutt’s website is http://chrisoffutt.com/

Code of the Hills by Chris Offutt. Grove Press, 2023. ISBN 9780802161918 (hardcover), 288p.

FTC Full Disclosure – I received a galley from NetGalley to review for a journal.