Backwater

This short novel by James Sallis received such rave reviews that I was anxious to read it. But you need to adjust your expectations. Here's a summary and review from Publishers Weekly:

"...Sallis, who died earlier this year, delivers a masterful, bittersweet swan song about a retired cop who's called in for one final job. Bishop agrees to take the reins of the tiny police department of Anne's Ferry, his hometown, after its longtime chief walks off the job and is never seen again. He learns how to prepare a budget and report to city council while overseeing a staff of three quirky officers: Hollis, Felicia, and Raymond. To rescue himself from feeling "like tumbleweed, blowing into town, rolling idly about the streets," Bishop digs into the case of a car found abandoned at a truck stop with blood smeared over every surface. He chips away at that inquiry in between dealing with the mundane crimes of small-town America--fender benders, wandering elderly neighbors, squatters in old farmhouses--and learns to find beauty in life's quieter moments. Eventually, the bloody car case gets resolved, as do most of the other daily dramas on Bishop's beat, but Sallis is more interested in the texture of life in Anne's Ferry than page-turning action. Brief but brimming with life, this is a tender farewell from a towering talent."

Booklist claims that "The author's death in early 2026 created a void in existentialist noir..." That's a new genre to me. The New York Times gushes that this "one last noir gem. Like the best of his crime fiction work ... Backwater... doesn’t waste a single word, and conveys more layers of emotion than most books double the length ever could." Similarly, Kirkus concludes their review saying "Although [protagonist] Bishop opines that “we use stories” to fit together the pieces of our lives, his six months in Anne’s Ferry play out less like a story than like a prose poem—or better yet, like a series of riffs on a jazz theme. Sallis’ valedictory novel is his most poignant and elliptical, and that’s saying a bit."

In short, the crimes of a small town eventually get solved but this is more a philosophical examination of policing and life in general than a typical whodunnit.