Pain and Pure Beauty

Ex-Army CID investigator Mick Hardin is back at it in the Kentucky hills in The Reluctant Sheriff, the fourth installment of Chris Offutt’s popular series.

Offutt wastes no time in the opening, as two liquor delivery drivers come across a dead body in the parking lot of a local tavern. This body is only the first to fall. Readers who’ve come to know and love the Mick Hardin novels can safely anticipate that there will be more to follow.

While the mysterious death lingers in the atmosphere, we find Hardin trying to fit into his new role as a small town’s temporary sheriff. As the novel’s title indicates, the position isn’t one Hardin really wants. He’s taken it out of family obligation — to aid his sister, Linda, until she can recover from a gunshot wound and return to the job. Hardin, while dreaming of a relaxing and peaceful retirement on the Mediterranean coast in Corsica, still approaches the role of sheriff with respect, and he diligently responds to the calls he receives.

In one of his early cases, he goes to resolve a seemingly simple domestic dispute. A woman named Molly Morris is fed up with her daughter-in-law Loretta, who lives in an alleged yurt behind Molly’s house. She claims Loretta is in over her head in tarot cards, Ouija board shenanigans, and “floozy business.” In short, Molly needs Loretta to change. The encounter is relatively light, but there’s more to come. Much more.

Another investigation for Hardin involves looking into his own family after his ex-wife’s new husband gets detained for possible involvement in a crime. Like the earlier situation with Molly and Loretta, the initial visit from law enforcement is just the beginning of the drama.

Offutt is a skilled storyteller, and he’s especially impressive in his ability to layer people and events. People enter the narrative and we get quick glimpses into their lives and situations. Then they come back, often with much more impact than we initially expected.

While this novel follows the series’ protagonist, there is another story inside The Reluctant Sheriff. This second thread is focused on Johnny Boy, a former colleague of Hardin’s who is out of the country recovering — and trying to escape the stresses of his life and work in Eastern Kentucky. While Hardin might not be with Johnny Boy on his trip, he very much wishes he was the one escaping. There’s a heavy loneliness and sense of longing in Hardin, and the sections with Johnny Boy symbolically amplify this feeling.

A special sense of place runs through Offutt’s Mick Hardin series, and the pages of The Reluctant Sheriff contain touches of small-town Southern charm. At Molly’s house, Mick notices that “[a] pair of bee boxes stood near a patch of honeysuckle beside a heavy-duty push lawnmower suited to rough terrain.” In another moment, the natural world takes over: “He went outside and sat on the porch. The late May trees were fully leafed out and bright green, each leaf like a hand cupped toward the sky. Spring’s optimism had shifted to the eager cheer of early summer. Heat and gravity hadn’t yet begun to droop the vivid foliage.” This kind of descriptive attention, mixed with accessible and confident prose, sustains the novel.

There is plenty of pain in Mick Hardin’s world, but there are also moments of pure beauty. This balance is what makes this novel feel so real and true.