'Kentucky Noir'
Getting Personal with 'Kentucky Noir'
By Julie Tollefson
Wes Browne’s novels have garnered praise from some of the heaviest hitters in current crime fiction. His new book, They All Fall the Same, came out in January and was a Goodreads Biggest Thriller or Mystery of 2025 and one of Book Riot Read or Dead's Most Anticipated Books of 2025. Here, he talks “Kentucky noir” and offers five tips for turning personal experience into page-turning drama with heart.
1) Write something genuine and true — In his fiction, Wes draws on 24 years as a criminal defense attorney, prosecutor, and public defender in Appalachia. That experience has given him a unique insight that translates into vibrant characters and settings that keep readers turning the page.
"I read pretty diversely, but my wheelhouse is fast-paced books full of dialogue, colorful and well-developed characters, and action. I’m the first person to lose interest if some aspect of a story doesn’t seem credible, so I work really hard to make my stories as genuine and well-researched as possible," he says.
Kentucky, his home and the setting for his first two books, Hillbilly Hustle and They All Fall the Same, proves a rich source of inspiration for his writing.
"Kentucky’s filled with such a wide variety of people and cultures that you only get a sense of it if you linger here a long time," he says. "The crime culture is just as varied. There are crimes of poverty and desperation, there are crimes motivated by addiction, there are crimes of passion—and many of those categories of crime spill over into what I write. But my jumping off point tends to be crimes related to amassing money and power."
Wes is careful not to take too much dramatic license in his portrayal of the people and the state, where "if you get something wrong, you’ll be called out on it. If you get it right, you’ll be praised for it.”
"Which is not to say I don’t write some wild things, but I always want there to be a basis in plausibility,” he says. “Some of what happens here couldn’t happen anywhere else. That lets me push the envelope a little bit and still stay within the bounds of reality."
2) Choose details with care — Wes relies on little things — an item of clothing, a line of dialogue, a glimpse of wildlife — when establishing a sense of place in his work.
"I don’t want the reader to feel my hands on them, so I drop small details at every opportunity. Some are so small you hardly notice, but they add up," he says.
Though Wes has lived in Kentucky since 1996, his semi-outsider status gives him perspective that a native Kentucky writer might not have and his work as a lawyer has taken him places most people never go.
"I've practiced criminal law for twenty-five years all over the rural counties I write about. It’s a real badge of honor to me when my writing rings true and resonates with people who were raised here," Wes says. “I’ve also roamed all over rural parts of Kentucky where I likely wouldn’t have gone if not for my law practice. And I linger. I hang out in the courthouses, clerk’s offices, and jails, but I also go into the stores and restaurants and talk to people. I enjoy it. That aspect of my nature feeds really well into writing.”
3) Tap into the humanity of your characters — “There’s nothing I like better than to get a reader to root for someone they probably shouldn’t,” Wes says. “You’ve got to dangle the possibility of redemption to give readers something to root for. They’ll stick with a dark character so long as they might find redemption in the end.”
Wes writes multi-faceted, nuanced outlaws and gangsters who have been shaped by the world in which they were raised. They have flaws. They’re vulnerable. They have passions beyond criminality.
“There’s nothing more boring than a black-and-white baddie. Real people are complex,” Wes says. “My outlaws are smart, and they’re sophisticated within the bounds of what they do. If they weren’t, they wouldn’t get where they’ve gotten.”
His trick for creating realistic characters? Get to know them.
“I picture my character’s day from the moment they wake up to the time they go to sleep,” he says. “If they take their coffee black with a handful of cholesterol and blood pressure meds, I want to know that. Do they grind their own beans or drink Folger’s? Do they put their dogs out or wait for someone else to get up and do it? Do they have a cat? Are they sweet to it or do they talk mean to it?”
He offers the protagonist in They All Fall the Same as an example.
“Burl Spoon lives in an old house in the Kentucky backwoods, but he’s got granite countertops and a big kitchen island. He would never be the one to clean them, but he’d be the first person mad if they were left dirty. That tells you something about him and his family,” Wes says.
4) Buddy up — Writers write what they know...and also what they don't. When you venture into unknown territory, reach out to friends who have the expertise you need, and offer your expertise in return.
"If any of my writing pals asks me to read a scene involving the legal system or law enforcement, I do it and I give feedback," Wes says. "I personally lean on family who are in the medical field for insight into medical questions, and I have shown everything I’ve ever written about guns to my friend who is a firearms instructor. If you don’t know something, find someone who does."
Wes has plenty of insider advice for writers who want to understand the legal system and are willing to take time to observe it in action.
"Nearly every court docket and trial is open to the public. You can go and watch for hours," he says. "There are also plenty of attorneys and judges who accept job shadows. Judges in particular are often bored and like having someone take an interest in them."
5) Read great writing — Wes’s list of personal writing influences and heroes is long. His work has been likened to Elmore Leonard and the Coen Brothers, comparisons he's happy to take.
But when it comes to writers he most aspires to be like, he points to three contemporary writers: S. A. Cosby, Jordan Harper, and Megan Abbott.
“Absolutely all my friends who write crime/noir cite those same three, but there’s a reason for it. Cosby and Harper both nail character and plot. Abbott creates this sense of tension and dread you can’t escape even when nothing overt is happening on the page,” he says.
Wes also cites the “greats of rural noir”: Donald Ray Pollock, Ron Rash, Larry Brown, Daniel Woodrell, and Tom Franklin. “They set a tone that envelopes you the whole time you’re in the saddle with them,” he says. “Then there is the legion of Appalachian writers who perfect setting and characterization: Silas House, Lee Smith, Robert Gipe, Crystal Wilkinson, and so many others.”
Stretching beyond crime fiction, writers that Wes admires include Richard Russo, Barbara Kingsolver, Michael Chabon, Louise Erdrich, Walter Tevis, Jim Harrison, Charles Portis, Michael Ondaatje, Colum McCann, and Jess Walter.
“I really could go on and on, but all I can say is that if you read great writing, regardless of type, your own writing benefits,” he says.
Bonus! Be patient — “It took me over 20 years and several completed novels before I wrote one that was published,” Wes says. “It took me even longer than that to land an agent. The longer you do it, and the more words you write, the better you’ll get. Whether they’re published or not, not a single word you write is wasted.”