Rascal's Redemption (The Rascal Series)

5 Star Review

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Editorial Book Review:

By Walter Miller

If you have already spent time with Critter Stillwell in Rascal on the Run, you already know that Howard Tate Scott writes the kind of Southern fiction that gets under your skin in the best possible way. Rascal's Redemption picks up that world and deepens it considerably, moving Critter out of the courtroom and onto the open water, and then pulling him back into exactly the kind of trouble he was trying to escape.

The setup is irresistible. Critter wants out. Out of the demanding family legacy, out of the all-consuming law practice, out into the Atlantic with Vivvy and a vintage motor yacht named Rascal that has, as Scott puts it, the soul of a smuggler. That description alone tells you everything you need to know about the tone of this book. It is warm and wry and slightly dangerous, the literary equivalent of a good bourbon on a boat at sunset right before something goes wrong.

And things do go wrong. The Bermuda Triangle detour, the sinister figure from Rascal's past, the FBI investigation that slowly tightens around everything Critter loves, these elements give the book its thriller backbone without ever losing the Southern family saga heart beating underneath. Scott is writing about brothers turning against each other, about the wreckage one man's choices can leave behind for years, about what love looks like when it has to survive genuine danger rather than just inconvenience.

What Scott does beautifully across both books is find the place where Rick Bragg's warmth and Pat Conroy's weight meet each other. The humor is real. The pain is real. The Georgia voices feel lived in rather than performed, which makes sense coming from a man who spent thirty years in that world before putting it on the page.

For readers who love character driven Southern fiction with real legal grit and genuine romance woven through it, this series keeps getting better. Critter Stillwell is absolutely worth following wherever Scott decides to take him next.

About the Author

Howard Tate Scott

After thirty years of practicing law in Georgia, Howard T. Scott pivoted from the courtroom to writing fiction inspired by anecdotes from the Southern storytelling tradition he’s immersed in. He’s one of the founding partners of the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise—the world’s only fully chartered blues cruise—and a lover of live music, fitness, nature, historic preservation, and travel. 

Scott splits his time between the dry land of Athens, Georgia, and the high seas of the Atlantic and the Caribbean.