All the Sinners Bleed

The third-person narration focuses on Titus, whose experiences inform the majority of the narrative. As the story begins, he is currently living with his father, Albert, who has had some medical issues. Helen, Titus’s mother, died when Titus was 13. Before the opening of the novel, a younger Titus had previously moved away from his hometown of Charon County, Virginia, to attend college and then work for the FBI. However, he has returned home to care for his father and to run for sheriff. Upon winning the election, he became the first Black sheriff in the county, and he now hopes to be able to improve the criminal justice system through the influence afforded by his position. Currently, a group of neo-Confederates led by a local man named Ricky Sours are planning a parade to celebrate a Confederate statue of “Ol’ Rebel Joe” that others would rather see taken down. The neo-Confederates want Titus, as the sheriff, to provide protection for them in case anyone protests their parade.

Titus has a girlfriend named Darlene. Before moving back home, he lived in Indiana and had a girlfriend named Kellie, whom he still thinks about often. Although Titus tells everyone that he came home to take care of his father, the narrative suggests that something serious happened during his tenure in the FBI. The as yet unexplained incident concerned a man named Red DeCrain who was a white supremacist and a criminal. Titus carries shame about whatever happened with Red DeCrain, and he is now trying to repent for his past actions by being a good sheriff in his hometown. In his one year as sheriff, Titus feels like he has not done a good enough job, because Jamal Addison, a Black pastor at a “New Wave” church, was excited to help get the first Black sheriff elected but is now unimpressed with Titus’s attempts to keep peace with the neo-Confederates. Titus is not religious, but most people in town are, including his father. However, there are several different local churches, the congregations of which bicker and accuse each other of being cults. When Titus is about to head to his office for the day, he gets a call from Cam, the police dispatcher, alerting him to an active-shooter situation at Jefferson Davis High School.

At the high school, teachers and students are evacuating the building. A few other police officers have arrived, including Davy, Roger, Carla, and Tom. A student says that someone in a mask shot a teacher named Mr. Spearman. (This event is particularly shocking because the area has only seen two known murders in 15 years.) Titus and the other police officers are about to enter the school when a young Black man comes out holding a mask and a gun. Titus recognizes him as Latrell, the son of his childhood friend Calvin and Calvin’s wife, Dorothy. Titus orders Latrell to drop his weapon, but Latrell refuses and makes a nonsensical mention of fallen angels and sick men. Titus unsuccessfully tries to convince Latrell to drop his gun. Suddenly, Latrell yells that he has become death and charges toward the police. Tom and Roger (who are white) fire at Latrell, who dies from the resulting gunshot wounds.

Inside the school, police discover the body of Mr. Spearman, who taught geography to ninth graders for decades and was the favorite teacher of many. Nobody else was killed or seriously injured besides Latrell and Mr. Spearman. Police take the phones of both Mr. Spearman and Latrell for evidence. Scott Cunningham, the chairman of the board of supervisors for Charon County, complains that the incident would never have happened if teachers were allowed to carry weapons at school. The Cunninghams have been in Charon for generations and own a fish house and the flag factory where Titus’s mother worked, along with many other citizens. Scott’s brother, Alan, once conspired to prevent Black families from building houses on land that he wanted for himself. These days, interactions between Titus and the Cunninghams are often antagonistic.

Titus, Carla, and the other police officers worry about “the shoot”—by which they mean the moment when Tom shot and killed Latrell. Although Latrell was armed, Titus does not like the fact that his deputies killed a young Black man who was his friend’s son. Titus doesn’t look forward to notifying Latrell’s parents or Spearman’s next of kin. Titus is also suspicious of Spearman and believes that looking through the teacher’s phone allow him to find some insight into Latrell’s reason for killing him. However, the phone requires Spearman’s fingerprint in order to be unlocked.

Back at the station, phones are ringing off the hook, and Cam struggles to answer all the calls. Everyone wants to know what happened, who died, and whether the shooter was apprehended. Titus creates a message to answer people’s basic questions. Latrell’s father, Calvin, calls Titus to ask if it’s true that his child is dead. Titus doesn’t want to talk about this on the phone and tells Calvin that he is coming over, even though Calvin begs Titus to just tell him. As Titus drives to Calvin’s house, he reflects upon Charon’s ongoing problems with racism and xenophobia. He passes several churches and considers the tendency of the town to be particularly racially segregated in the churches. There are 23 churches throughout the county. The First and Second Corinthian churches are the two that most white residents attend. The New Wave Temple is where Jamal preaches, and Emmanuel Baptist Church is where his mother attended and taught Sunday school. His father goes there too, having become more religious a few years after Titus’s mother died. Titus arrives at Calvin’s house and confirms that Latrell is dead. The narrative reveals that Latrell has been going through hard times with substance use disorder and mental illness, but Dorothy thought he was doing better with his new job at the fish house.

When Titus returns to the station, Jamal and some others are waiting for him in the parking lot to ask why Latrell was shot. Titus refuses to provide details on an active investigation but states that the officers involved are being put on administrative leave in accordance with official policy. Someone in the crowd calls Titus an “Oreo,” suggesting that he is acting “white.” Titus goes inside and informs Roger about being placed on leave; Roger doesn’t appreciate this. Darlene calls Titus, but he screens her call and texts to let her know that he is busy. Darlene puts up with Titus’s tendency to be emotionally unavailable, but he can tell that she expects him to tell her all his secrets one day. He has not yet confided to her about his past and does not plan to do so.

Titus visits the funeral home so that he can use Mr. Spearman’s fingerprint to unlock the man’s phone. He reviews the phone’s pictures, some of which are normal, but then he finds a file full of horrific images. In these pictures, Spearman and another man with a wolf mask are torturing, sexually abusing, and murdering Black children. Latrell is also in some of the pictures, but he does not seem to be the one in charge. Titus immediately drives to Spearman’s house and asks Carla and Davy to meet him there.

They get a search warrant and find Spearman’s computer along with external drives containing more pictures and videos. There is also a painting of a willow tree that’s been hidden along with other illicit materials. Although the painting itself doesn’t appear to be illicit, Titus reasons that it must be important, and surmises that this tree might mark the location where the bodies of the murdered kids from the pictures are hidden. Davy and Carla cannot handle watching the videos, but Titus does it because he knows that this evidence will help him to catch the murderer. Based on the videos and pictures, at least seven children were killed. Titus looks through Latrell’s phone as well, but there’s not much on it. The only notable thing is that the last text message he received was from Spearman. In the text, Spearman threatened Latrell’s younger brother Lavon.