Damn Straight It's Wicked

Some crime novels are told with a wink and a nod, a "nothing going on here kind of thing". Some sex it up to give a little drugs, a little whoring, a little gambling a kind of appeal. The kind of book you'd like to step into, at least for a little while. Not Ace Atkins' Wicked City.

Wicked indeed.

The novel tells the story of Phenix City, Alabama dubbed "the wickest city in America" in the 1950s. The wicked in Wicked City is like a flood rising, rising, rising sweeping all the people-good and bad-before it. People coping, or not coping, with the dark forces that are beyond them makes for a tough and brutal read. It's a well researched, starkly presented historical story completely without sentiment or nostalgia. These were most definately not the good old days. Atkins spares nothing-bestiality, rape, murder, corruption-it's all carefully detailed. Though there is some humor and snappy dialogue, fans of his Nick Travers series may well be left with their jaws in their laps for Wicked City is a whole other kind of ride.