This Side of Night is the third novel by J. Todd Scott featuring Big Bend County Sheriff Chris Cherry. I’m a big fan of these novels not only because Scott is a great writer (who spent decades in the DEA before he became a writer, so he knows his stuff) but also because I’m partial to the far west Texas setting. All three novels are set in Murfee, Texas, which is basically a fictionalized Marfa, and involve Sheriff Cherry and his young family.

I enjoyed this installment of the series, which focused on drug/cartel violence along the border, but not quite as much as I hoped. The first book in this series, The Far Empty, is still my favorite by a long shot. This third novel held my interest largely because I’ve become invested in the characters. I wasn’t quite so taken with the cartel-related plot because I’ve grown a bit weary of that. (Don Winslow’s The Border — the final installment of his border triology — has been sitting on my bedside table for months now, but I haven’t had the heart to dive into it yet.). Scott is a gifted writer and I look forward to seeing what he does next, either with this series or with something new.

If you are interested in trying a new crime/mystery series, give this one a shot but start with the first book. Be aware that these are gritty crime novels, and have some graphic violence, so they may not be for everyone.