Don’t Let the Devil Ride 

By Ace Atkins 

William Morrow, an imprint of Harper Collins; 2024 

Hardcover: $30.00; Paperback: $18.99; eBook: $12.99 

Genre: Crime Fiction 

Reviewed by Edward Journey 

Cover of DON'T LET THE DEVIL RIDE by Ace Atkins. The title overlays an image of the Mississippi River and the Hernando de Soto Bridge in Memphis, Tennessee, at sunset.
If an international heist is planned and local thieves, headed up by an aging former drag queen named Miss Ricky, beat the foreigners to the loot by a couple of hours, the local denizens of Ace Atkins’s latest novel, Don’t Let the Devil Ride, might sum it up in one word: “Memphis.” Atkins uses the city’s scruffy image to highlight the nefarious goings-on just beyond the country club in a novel that continues the author’s impressive list of crime thrillers.  

Don’t Let the Devil Ride is the thirtieth book by Ace Atkins, the Alabama-born former Auburn football player who is a 2025 inductee into the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame. Memphis is the primary setting, but the scope is international, with episodes in Dubai, Paris, London, and Cairo, and a cast of characters including a suave French arms broker, a Russian Charlie Daniels fan and movie buff who is “the kind of man who gave arms dealers a bad name,” and a never-ending cadre of dispensable shaved head security thugs. The reader also gets to spend time in a Tunica, Mississippi, high-rollers suite. 

As the story begins, Addison’s husband, Dean McKellar, the owner of a successful construction company, has disappeared, and the family coffers are running low. Addison is used to Dean’s disappearances, but this one feels different. In her attempt to track her husband down, she discovers that Dean’s construction company doesn’t exist, the Memphis police don’t seem particularly interested in finding a wayward husband, and family and friends appear to be covering for him. Addison’s dying father, Sami Hassan of Bluff City Barbecue, puts her in touch with his friend, Porter Hayes, “Memphis’s Favorite Private Eye” and the possessor of an impressive collection and knowledge of classic R&B. Hayes takes Addison’s story seriously and begins to uncovers a labyrinth of preposterous connections that reveal the life that Dean has meticulously kept hidden from his wife and most of Memphis country club society. 

Joanna Grayson, a British actor and grifter who is trying to survive in Memphis with misleading stories of her special relationship with Elvis Presley during the filming of the forgettable Easy Come, Easy Go, becomes an increasingly key part of the mystery. “The One-Armed Man,” Jack Dumas, is a redneck tough periodically wreaking havoc. Leslie Grimes, the wealthy owner of a chain of Christian-based stores, might remind readers of a certain real scandal. (There was a moment when my brain went ding ding ding Hobby Lobby! as the sanctimonious Mr. Grimes was extolling his mission.) There are real FBI men and, perhaps, fake ones. And the name Peter Collinson keeps popping up. 

Atkins’s usual intricate plotting and rapid introduction of multiple well-defined characters are familiar elements to his regular readers. So are his casual cool humor and asides. Atkins throws in a plot twist in the shower that is unmistakably inspired by the Dallas television series in the ‘80s – and he acknowledges the source. As Addison remembers the crowd at a Darius Rucker concert, she thinks, “If you didn’t notice the hair loss and weight gain, it could’ve been Ole Miss back in 1992.” Grimes’s cringy description of the diorama inside a sugar Easter egg is memorable for its sheer tackiness; even so, “Folks came from all over Arkansas for them.” 

It is easy to be caught up in the suspense. Addison, who has a drinking problem, is gaslighted so often and by so many that readers might feel a little gaslit themselves. The element of surprise is a tool that Atkins mastered long ago; I caught myself audibly gasping at a plot turn more than once. Woven into the tale is Atkins’s keen ability to address subtle distinctions of class, culture, and race. The novel is written in third person, but each chapter cleverly adopts the voice of the chapter’s focus. There is much salty language throughout, but Leslie Grimes’s chapters are heavy on the “gosh almighty” moments. 

If you’ve never heard of a Hebrew geniza, this book will fill you in. And I’m still trying to discern the intricacies of something called the “double-crested dragon.” Ace Atkins never ceases to entertain, and despite an impressive body count, Don’t Let the Devil Ride is an enjoyable helping of suspense and mystery with a good dose of Memphis on the side.  

Edward Journey, a retired university professor and theatre professional living in Birmingham, regularly shares his essays in the online journal “Professional Southerner” (www.professionalsoutherner.com).