Thank you Atlantic Crime, #partner, for the advanced copy of Promised Land in exchange for my honest review.
Publisher: Atlantic Crime
Published: September 1, 2026
Summary:
Word is bond—until the past threatens to break it
From the Edgar Award-winning author comes a decisive sequel to Holy City in which a missing person case forces deputy sheriff Will Seems to confront the way history anchors, corrupts, and defines the present
Deep within southside Virginia lies the Snakefoot—a wild swampland that holds secrets, hides truths, and harbors the dead in murky waters that refuse to shine yet somehow glow.
One morning, a pickup truck is found jammed into the mud, the driver’s door open amidst scattered bullets and bloodstains on the seat. The driver, Rainbo Boon, is nowhere to be found, but his tracks lead Deputy Sheriff Will Seems and his partner, Tania Jameson, into the swamp.
During their investigation, Buck Tomlin, the grandson of the missing Rainbo, proves cooperative, at least at first. But when the boy’s whereabouts from the night of the accident don’t check out, Will and Tania must confront the troubling reality that the Snakefoot might hold more than just a runaway victim.
When haunting layers of history—both local and personal—rise to the surface of the Snakefoot, the people who have found refuge in its murky waters are exposed. Who really is Rainbo Boon? Where was Buck on the night of the accident? And how does this all connect to the recent efforts to redevelop the land?
As Will and Tania search for answers, so does Buck, and the sum of their investigations illuminates the hard fact that there is a price for progress, and a cost to living by a code. Sometimes all a person has is his word, and that word is his bond.
Powerful and complex, Promised Land is about the gravity of the past, the momentum of sin, and the impossibility of salvation.
My thoughts:
I had a feeling going into this book it was going to be a winner…I just didn’t know how much I would end up loving it. Don’t get me wrong…much like Holy City, this is dark, gritty and at times haunting, with such a strong sense of place…I felt like I was right there in Snakefoot myself!
This is literary crime fiction at its best. It’s such a layered story — it’s not just about a missing person, but rather the people and their connections and the lengths they will go to protect what they believe in. As in the first book, we see that not all characters are inherently all good or all bad. That seems to be a running theme in this series and I loved seeing it play out again here.
This is a book that begs you to pay attention…it isn’t filled with twist after twist but rather it is a slow-burn that reveals secrets and history at just the right moments, in an intense, gripping way. I was so invested in what was happening, in how the past informed the present, I had such a hard time putting this one down. I love character-driven mysteries and this one definitely delivers such a power, thought-provoking read.
This will definitely be a top read for sure!!
Books in this series:
- Holy City
- Promised Land
- Our Fathers – due out early 2028
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