Crime Writer S.A. Cosby

Fresh Air

NPR

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4.4 • 34.4K Ratings

🗓️ 25 July 2023

⏱️ 47 minutes

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Summary

In S.A. Cosby's novel All the Sinners Bleed, a Black sheriff in a Southern town is tracking down a serial killer who preys on Black children. The author spoke with producer Sam Briger about how the story was inspired by the George Floyd uprising, and his own feelings about his Southern identity.

Also, critic Maureen Corrigan reflects on her childhood playing with Barbies.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Fresh Air, I'm Terry Gross. Our guest today is crime writer S.A. Cosby. He spoke with
0:06.2	our producer Sam Brigger about his new novel All the Sinners Bleed. Here's Sam.
0:12.3	In the new novel All the Sinners Bleed by our guest S.A. Cosby, Sheriff Titus Crown is tracking
0:18.4	down a serial killer terrorizing his jurisdiction, Sharon County, a fictional county in Southeast
0:24.3	Virginia. The killer's victims are black children. As he investigates Titus unravels the racial
0:30.5	and religious animus behind the killings. Titus had left Sharon County to go to college and to work
0:36.6	with the FBI investigating domestic terrorism. But after that career abruptly ended, he reluctantly
0:42.5	returned to live with this aging father. Titus was elected the first black sheriff of Sharon,
0:48.0	a remarkable achievement considering the prevalence of Confederate flags in the area,
0:52.5	the high school named after Jefferson Davis, and a statue honoring the Confederate cause outside
0:57.8	the courthouse. Titus has to figure out a way to keep the county safe from the serial killer,
1:03.1	and also keep simmering racial tensions from getting out of hand, especially as a white supremacist
1:08.6	group is planning to march in support of what it calls, quote, Southern Heritage. S.A. Cosby has
1:14.5	written several crime novels including the best seller Razer Blade Tears and Blacktop Wasteland.
1:19.7	Razer Blade Tears appeared on many best of the year lists in 2021. Cosby, whose first name is Sean,
1:26.0	grew up in Matthews County, a place very much like the fictional Sharon County, and now lives nearby.
1:32.8	Will Sean Cosby welcome to Fresh Air? Thank you, thank you for having me.
1:37.0	I'd like to start with the prologue to your book if you could do a reading for us, and this sort of
1:42.4	sets up what Sharon County is like in some of its history. Yeah sure, I love to.
1:49.6	Sharon County. Sharon County was founded in bloodshed and darkness, literally infegregatively.
1:56.4	Even the name is enveloped in shadows and morbidity. Legend has it that the name of the county was
2:01.6	supposed to be Charlotte or Charles, but the town elders waited too late, and those names were
	...

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