Old Anger

Sheriff Colt Harper believes he’s colorblind in his enforcement of the law. But is he? When a black man is murdered, it ignites age-old anger in the African-American community over the injustices they’ve endured and forces Harper to confront his own personal demons. Harper’s single-minded pursuit of justice for the dead man thrusts him between two volatile groups — furious blacks who don’t know if they can trust him and racist whites who want to use the controversy to spark a bloody race war.

Reviews

Old Anger has some sweet echoes of the past while being something modern at the same time. Pacing is outstanding and the story is engaging. It has a western rash under its skin. Recommended.

—Joe R. Lansdale, creator of Hap & Leonard

Phillip Thompson combines the visceral verbal skills of Craig Johnson with the white knuckle tension of Stephen Hunter. Old Anger will leave you soaked in sweat and gasping for air.

–S.A. Cosby, author of Blacktop Wasteland

Old Anger is a modern Southern novel in the best sense—exploring issues of race, privilege, and generational mistrust with candor and grace. It’s also a fiercely engaging mystery. Thompson’s lawman, Colt Harper, is a man of honor in a world that could use more of ’em. Consider me a fan.

–Chris Holm, Anthony Award winning author of The Killing Kind

In Thompson’s well-wrought third crime novel featuring Mississippi sheriff Colt Harper. Thoughtful prose is matched by solid characterizations. Thompson delivers a timely tale of racial violence.

–Publishers Weekly

Outside the Law

Colt Harper is back in a big way in Outside the Law. Harper lives by his own moral code, and his relentless crusade against drug crimes in his rural Mississippi county infuriates a Memphis mobster who sends Hack, his cold-blooded assassin, to stop him. ATF Special Agent Molly McDonough, looking to save her troubled career, follows Hack’s trail of corpses to Harper’s turf. The fates of Harper, McDonough and Hack collide in a bloody, brutal showdown for justice, redemption and survival that can only be fought outside the law.

Reviews:

Sheriff Colt Harper, as the title of Thompson’s tough, fast-paced sequel to 2013’s Deep Blood suggests, takes a Dirty Harry approach to law enforcement. In his first term as sheriff of Mississippi’s rural Lowndes County, Colt has shot several people, and his office stands accused of using excessive violence. He’s unsure whether he should run for reelection. At the scene of a convenience store robbery, a teenage boy, whom Colt places under arrest, tells him that somebody has been taking down drug dealers. When drug dealers start turning up dead, Colt suspects that a serial killer is at work. Molly McDonough, an ATF special agent, helps him investigate. Colt and Molly, who have each become disillusioned with their jobs, are seeking redemption for past mistakes. Meanwhile, a Memphis crime lord has ordered Hack, a hit man, to stop Colt. Hack, too, expresses a desire for redemption. Fueled by either remorse or revenge (or a combination of both), Thompson’s convincing characters race toward an inevitable and explosive showdown.

—Publishers Weekly

Through the deeply flawed character of Sheriff Colt Harper, Phillip Thompson explores Larry Brown’s rough south, digging deeper and seeking a truce with the interloping outside world, and Harper’s tormented inner world as well. Thompson writes about the tendency of a good man toward violence. The need to seek redemption for the sins of the past—even if that redemption is through more violence. Maybe especially. Outside the Law is my kind of book, and Phillip Thompson’s Mississippi is a rough south indeed. One I hope he’ll revisit.

— Grant Jerkins, prize-winning author of  A Very Simple Crime

Outside the Law is a winner in the tradition of Justified and Walking Tall. There’s right and there’s wrong and the no man’s land in between. Thompson explores them all, but it’s the reader who gets the big payoff in the end.

Outside the Law needs to be savored and enjoyed. Read it for the action but also read it for the sense of place. Thompson’s writing is sparse and brilliant, no flowery speeches, no unnecessary actions.

–The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature

Deep Blood

Deep Blood is the first Colt Harper novel. His moral compass is slightly askew: he doesn’t care for the mundane parts of his job, he drinks too much, is separated from his wife, and has a former stripper girlfriend who regularly violates the drug laws of the county. Even when the son of a close friend is murdered, he has a hard time concentrating on the subsequent investigation. But when his incorrigible father is arrested again for DUI, he learns a secret of his father’s past — one that threatens his own future.  Described as “southern-fried noir,” Deep Blood is a story of justice, redemption and family secrets.  Check out the trailer for Deep Blood here.

Featured Review: 

The truth has a way of coming out, no matter how potent it can be. It’s not always pretty or even the way you would hope it should be, but it can definitely set you free. This is something we have seen in life, and in Phillip Thompson’s new book DEEP BLOOD we are given a reminder of it. We meet Colt Harper, a man who is entrusted with enforcing the law, but finds himself at times involved in actions that blur the line between what’s seen as right and wrong. He’s not alone. His father has been a thorn in his side most of his life, and his behavior leads to trouble that only adds to Colt’s grief. Set in Mississippi DEEP BLOOD helps us to see how the layers of the law, good versus evil and the dysfunctions of family can collide to create a recipe of complicated disaster. When a good friend’s son is murdered, it brings about a part of the past that Colt Harper would rather not be reminded of and the issue of race and how it still seems to be the poison that destroys lives. Though Colt hasn’t had the best relationship with his father, will it cause him to believe the worse before the truth is revealed? That is what readers will find out along with how people can look past color to seeing a person’s real value. Definitely a story I enjoyed, full of realistic and flawed characters that will keep you reading until the end. Regardless of what type of book you are used to reading, give this one a try. DEEP BLOOD is sure to remind you that nothing holds the power of the truth.

– Cyrus A. Webb, Host of Conversations LIVE! Radio

Enemy Within

A Simple Murder

A Simple Murder is the second Wade Stuart novel. In this installment, Stuart has resigned from the ATF and is content to while away his days in Hawaii as freelance reporter. But when he reports on a murder aboard the Marine base on Oahu, he discovers a sinister plot to kill hundreds of innocent tourists. Navigating his way between his former Washington bosses, hostile locals and the Hawaiian sovereignty movement, Stuart finds himself again trying to stop an audacious terror attack. Available via Amazon.

My nonfiction account of the Persian Gulf War.