Book Review: Don't Let the Devil Ride

Addison McKellar isn’t clueless—she knows she and her husband Dean don’t have the perfect marriage—but she’s still shocked when he completely vanishes from her life. At first Addison is annoyed, but as days stretch into a week and she’s repeatedly stonewalled by Dean’s friends and associates, her frustration turns into genuine alarm. When even the police seem dismissive of her concerns, Addison turns to her father’s old friend, legendary Memphis PI Porter Hayes.

Porter and Addison begin to dig deeper into Dean’s affairs and quickly discover that he was never the hardworking business owner and family man he pretended to be. As they piece together the connections between a hook-handed mercenary, one of Elvis’s former leading ladies, and a man posing as an FBI agent, it becomes clear that Dean was deeply enmeshed in a high-stakes web of international intrigue, and Porter and Addison aren’t the only ones looking for him. Dean angered some very dangerous people before he disappeared—people who have already killed to get what they want—and they won’t hesitate to come after his family to even the score.

Don't Let the Devil Ride by Ace Atkins will be published June 25, 2024. William Morrow provided an early galley for review.

Atkins was yet another of the authors I got to hear talk about their upcoming books back in April at PLA 2024. His excitement about this new series was enough to get me to check it out.

I really enjoyed this first outing of Porter Hayes. I found the character to be interesting and layered. He has a backstory and many connections to the Memphis community that I am eager to see explored in future installments of this series. The whole Memphis vibe is fun as well.

There is a lot of secret lives and double-dealing going on in the story. That leads to various characters touching upon the bigger plot in differing ways. Some worked for me and kept me very focused. Others, however, did not and thus I found myself quick skimming those chapters. Still, the deeper into the book I got the deeper into the mystery I found myself embroiled. The story definitely went directions I had not anticipated.

Overall, this was a very violent thriller (a little too much so for my normal taste). I did enjoy all of the music references though.