Coming out June 29, 2021
A sequel to the intense atmospheric thriller about the first female sheriff in rural Bad Axe County, Wisconsin.
As she finds herself embroiled in a nasty reelection campaign, Heidi Kick has a dead body on her hands. Chillingly, the medical examiner confirms the homeless victim was buried alive. As the relentless summer heat bears down and more bodies are discovered.
If Joseph Conrad had really wanted to find the heart of darkness, he’d have looked in Bad Axe County. Lurking in the isolated coulees at the edge of the Mississippi River are some of the meanest, foulest, cruelest hearts imaginable, and John Galligan evokes them with all the intensity of a mad poet. But in county sheriff Heidi Kick, a woman chipped and broken on every edge, Galligan offers a righteous force in opposition. Set in a landscape of the salvage yards, two-bit taverns, and blink-and-you’ll miss-’em small towns of Wisconsin’s Driftless Area, Bad Axe County is a dark beauty of a novel, nothing less than a mythic conflict between flawed heroes and gargantuan evil. It’s not always an easy battle to watch, but I guarantee you won’t be able to look away.
– William Kent Krueger, winner of the 2013 Edgar Award for Best Novel (Ordinary Grace), two-time Anthony Award Best Novel winner, and author of the popular Cork O’Connor crime series set in Minnesota
John Galligan’s career as a novelist began with the critically acclaimed Red Sky, Red Dragonfly based on his experiences living, teaching, and traveling in Japan.
He subsequently became best known for his groundbreaking and celebrated series of mysteries featuring a nomadic fly fisherman: The Nail Knot, The Blood Knot, The Clinch Knot, and The Wind Knot.
Bad Axe County, the start of his latest mystery/thriller series, was published in 2019.
The second Heidi Kick mystery Dead Man Dancing that was published August 11 2020 was listed in BookPage’s 2020 preview: Most anticipated mysteries & thrillers
