The Killing Hills | Chris Offutt

episode SUMMARY:

In this episode of the Books for Men podcast, host Douglas Vigliotti discusses the novel The Killing Hills by Chris Offutt. He mentions that the book is often marketed as a thriller, but he believes it falls more into the mystery genre. Vigliotti praises Offutt's minimalist prose style and well-crafted plot. He describes the book as a detective PI-type mystery set in a small town in Kentucky, with elements of noir and a focus on the human element of the characters. Vigliotti also highlights the author's sensibilities and the subtlety of the chapter endings. He encourages listeners to share the podcast and connect with him on Instagram @douglasvigliotti, and provides information on accessing full transcripts and signing up for the newsletter at BooksforMen.org.

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Welcome back, the Books for Men, a podcast to inspire more men to read and bring together men who do. So this week we are pivoting back into a work of fiction, and it's actually a novel that I read earlier in the year. If you like crimes and mysteries, then you're really going to enjoy the book that I'm sharing with you today, which is The Killing Hills by Chris Offutt, and I hope I'm pronouncing his last name correctly. I've never heard it said out loud before, so I apologize if I'm pronouncing the name incorrectly. Hopefully, the consolation will be that I love the novel and I highly recommend it to anyone who as I've already mentioned, enjoys crimes and mysteries. Maybe I'm just talking about semantics here, but this book falls into the camp that I have already talked a little bit about on this podcast. I can't remember what episode it was in, but I mentioned that a lot of times publishers will coin books, thrillers that aren't really thrillers because from a marketing perspective, supposedly thriller sells more books and it's a sexier term for readers.

(01:19)

So you pull in a whole different type of audience. I guess I don't really know, I'm not on the inside of publishing houses or that aspect of things. I just know that they do this quite often and they did this with this book. It's a book that if you go look online, the marketing copy will call it a thriller, but I really find it hard-pressed to call it one based on what I know a thriller to be or what I think a thriller to be. So if it's not one, then what is it? Well, as I already had mentioned crime kind of breaks out into two aspects, mysteries and thrillers. You can always think of a thriller where the crime hasn't happened yet, and it's about the anticipation of the crime. That's what the basis of suspense is, whereas the mystery is when the crime happens and we want to figure out how it happen?

(02:10)

So it's already happened or it's about to happen. Two shortcuts, easy ways to think about it. Of course, there’s a mishmash, and you could be in both camps a little bit here and there, but to me, this book is really a tried and true detective PI type of story, which falls pretty squarely in the mystery camp most of the time. Again, I understand why there is sometimes a mishmash, but with this one particularly, I don't really see many thriller elements in it. With that being said, what there is a heavy dose of is something that we've talked a lot about on this podcast, which is noir. So this is definitely a piece of noir fiction. It's more rural noir, which sort of is having a birth, right now. There's a lot of Southern Noir in the marketplace, so if you like authors, some we’ve featured on this podcast before, like S.A. Cosby, or say Eli Cranor, or a slew of them that are out there now.

(03:05)

This falls into that southern noir rural noir genre space. I will say stylistically afoot is different than any of the authors that I just mentioned or any of the authors that I've read in the noir space or mystery space. His sensibilities really lean more on the literary side of things as opposed to the genre side of things. It's one of the reasons why I love this novel so much. I first got put onto him by a standalone that he wrote a few years back called Country Dark, which has a lot of Southern Patois in it, so it could be a little difficult to read, but it has that same minimalistic show, don't tell type of sensibility, and it's just a very sparse style that is much different than I would say is the typical genre style, which happens to be much more voice-y and it's not about what's better or worse, I guess it's just more about what are you into, what do you want to read, what do you like or what voice is speaking to you at the moment or style is speaking to you at the moment, right?

(04:08)

So last week or the week before, I featured Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and I talked a lot about crime movies and crime films. Are you into a Tarantino crime? Are you into a Scorsese crime? They're in the same genre, but they're stylistically completely different. And so going back to this novel, I feel like Offutt occupies a space where stylistically, he really embraces that minimalist sensibility and relies a lot on the reader to piece things together. And of course, this is something that you either like or don't like. And for me, I love the minimalist aesthetic. I love the sensibilities of the author. I think one of the things that makes this novel so great, at least in my eyes, is technically speaking, it is so well crafted from a pro standpoint, or at least in my perspective, and the best way that I can equate this is to a guitar player who hits all of the notes flawlessly.

(05:09)

So you could sound great as a guitar player if you don't hit the notes flawlessly, and some might say that is their unique sound, right? They're missing some notes or playing a little sloppy here and there and maybe you don't even realize it. But then there are other ones who hit all of the notes perfectly technically, they're just super sound, and to me, that's what Offutt is with his prose in this novel. It's crafted so well. It's a great example of excellent writing, at least in my perspective. And again, this is something that is debatable, so I want to reiterate that this is just my opinion and you're welcome to have a different one. In fact, I hope you do because that would make me very happy to know that you're reading that critically, or as the great Neil Young would say: “If somebody doesn't like something that's just as interesting as them liking it.”

(05:58)

I always love that quote. But anyway, before I digress too far here, let me tell you a little bit about the story. So in a nutshell, it's about an Army CID agent, named Mick Hardin, who is home on leave or potentially AWOL, but that's up for debate, I guess you'll read about it in the novel. His sister is the newly appointed sheriff of a small town called Rocksalt, which is in the hills of Kentucky, a.k.a. The Killing Hills, and she calls on him to help her solve a local murder, which ties in gangsters and local politicians and all the sketchy characters that make up rock salt and the hills of Kentucky. For me, the most interesting part is the more human element of the story, which ties in Mick Hardin's wife, pregnant wife, I should say, and some of his internal struggles with substance abuse as well as the relationships in his life.

(06:58)

And this of course feels very standard as a setup for a cookie-cutter pi and detective story, but as I've already mentioned, I won't harp on it, but it's worth mentioning at least one more time. The prose is tight and lean and just so good for me and I will stress for me on this aspect of things. The sensibilities of the author are spot on, and that is something that is extremely different from person to person. So you either get down with an author's sensibilities or you don't. I always say that that is the 10% or 15% that cannot be taught. It's the thing that makes any writer or any artist them is their sensibilities. So everyone can learn how to write or tell a story or whatever, how to create good drama with tension and this, that, and the other thing. But sensibilities are something that almost cannot be taught.

(07:50)

It's the defining characteristic of a writer. And so I really enjoy the author's sensibilities in this—they're witty but subtle. He uses just enough words. He doesn't overexplain dialogue, which is a pet peeve of mine when I read something. If you have to explain the dialogue, then you should probably just go back and rewrite the dialogue. Obviously, it's not doing the thing that you're hoping it's doing, but anyway, lastly, I wanted to mention, that there's a subtlety that I love about this book and that is, it has really good chapter endings. Some books have them, some books don't. I can enjoy a book without having really good chapter endings, but when you have a chapter ending that ends perfectly, it really does a lot carrying you on to the next chapter. It leaves a good taste in your mouth, so to speak, and that doesn't mean leaving you on a cliffhanger.

(08:34)

There's a difference, right? It just means it ties up what you just read in a very cohesive, slightly mysterious way that is not unrealistic or dumb, but it's just clever enough, but not too clever, if that makes sense. A book that I absolutely love, and I know that there are a lot of people who will have a lot to say about this author is Charles Bukowski, Ham On Rye, which is probably his best novel does that extremely well, a book that I probably will feature at some point on the podcast, but this book couldn't be more different than that book in general, just I'm talking about in reference to chapter endings. Anyway, I am done. This episode is a wrap. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, then please remember to share it with friends, family members, or other people who you think might enjoy it, because word of mouth is everything when we're trying to spread awareness.

(09:26)

And, with this podcast specifically, it's to inspire more men to read, and you could double down on that support by liking, rating, following, subscribing, and reviewing on whatever podcast platform you're listening to this on. Also, if you want to connect with me, you can hit me up on Instagram @douglasvigliotti. I know that podcasting is talking into a black hole, so I want to open up that line of communication for you. Additionally, if you want more information, you could visit BooksforMen.org where you can find full transcripts for all of these episodes, as well as sign up for the newsletter, which is a monthly roundup of every episode complete with full book and author information, all the best quotes, as well as additional quotes. There will be plenty from The Killing Hills that I can promise you and newsletter-only book recommendations, so recommendations that you can only get by signing up for the newsletter. Again, if you're interested in that, just head over to BooksforMen.org.