[Typewriter ding] - [S.A.] I am S.A. Cosby, author of "All The Sinners Bleed."

"All the Sinners Bleed" is the story of Titus Crown.

He's the first black sheriff in a small southern town.

And then on the one year anniversary of his election, there's a terrible tragedy at the school.

And this tragedy unearthed an even deeper and more disturbing crime.

- I've heard you talk about how you love to pile on your characters.

(S.A. laughs) Will you talk about how Titus in particular, but even all the other characters in this book?

- [S.A.] Yeah.

- I mean, you've created this unbelievable cast in this small town, this small county, that are larger than life, but wow, do they get beaten down.

- Oh yeah.

(J.T.

laughs) Somebody, a friend of mine who's a writer, I don't know if it's his original quote, he said, writing is putting your character in a tree and then throwing rocks at him.

I think there was times where I was throwing bricks at Titus and cinder blocks and, you know, whole bags of gravel and, but he took it because he can bear the weight.

- Right.

- And but also, like you said, the other characters, his deputies, his father, his brother, there's all these characters that are dealing with so many complex issues.

But for me, the thing that binds them, the thing that elevates the book, is that they love each other.

(gentle music) - [J.T.]

Talk to me about building these towns that you set your books in.

- Well, I mean, I grew up there so like, you know, I just changed the name, so nobody will get mad at me.

But I think the small town in America, whether it's in the rural south or rural Midwest, is a microcosm of the rest of the country.

You know, you have people who are tolerant, you have people who are progressive, people who are conservative.

You have people who are hard to like, hard to love, but they're all in it together.

I wanted people to see, you know, the things that I love about being a Southerner and also the things that I detest.

I think the South is sort of like that relationship you had with family.

I can talk about it.

You better not say anything about it.

But I think because I'm here, because I'm a part of it, I can discuss it in a way that I think maybe someone who didn't grow up here maybe can't or doesn't understand it as intrinsically as somebody who did grow up here does.

(gentle music) - I'm thrilled to have had you here.

Thank you so much.

- Thank you so much for having me.

- For coming on "A Word on Words."

- It's a pleasure.

Thank you so much.

- And thank you for watching "A Word on Words."

I'm J.T.

Ellison.

Keep reading.

(bell dings) - [S.A.] Crime fiction is the best vehicle to talk about the things, the existential things, the human things, the things that bind us, in a way that's exciting and interesting, but also hopefully thought provoking.