[1][2] Set in the fictional town of Pottsville during the early 20th century, the novel follows Nick Corey, a seemingly dim-witted sheriff whose pleasant exterior hides a scheming, psychopathic personality.

Through the course of the novel Nick commits a series of increasingly egregious crimes against deserving and innocent people alike and expertly manipulates those around him to avoid accountability and realize his desires.

NPR's Stephen Marche described it as Thompson's "true masterpiece, a preposterously upsetting, ridiculously hilarious layer cake of nastiness, a romp through a world of nearly infinite deceit.

"[3] Charlie Higson noted that "The book manages to switch between hilarious and horrific in a startling manner.

[4] Sheriff Nick Corey presents himself as a genial fool, simplistic, over-accommodating, and harmless to a fault, given he is Pottsville's sole lawman.

The novel begins with Nick visiting Ken Lacey, the sheriff of a nearby county, ostensibly to ask for advice about two pimps who regularly insult and bully him.

Lacey mocks and belittles Nick, boasting that if any pimps disrespected him, he would shoot them dead on the spot.

The next day, county attorney Robert Lee Jefferson berates Nick for never making any arrests.

Rose finally realizes the extent of her manipulation by Nick, but when she confronts him, he laughs at her and suggests that she flee town before her murders are discovered.

Nick's inner monologue becomes increasingly delusional and confused as he comes to believe he is God's agent sent to exercise divine justice upon Pottsville.

In the novels Wild Town and The Transgressors, the sheriff is heroic, a highly intelligent man who was forced by circumstances to take a job that did not allow him to take full advantage of his abilities and who plays at being a clown to fit in to his role and to manipulate people for altruistic ends.

In his autobiography Bad Boy, Thompson wrote that this character was based on an actual deputy who pursued him when he neglected to pay a fine for being drunk and disturbing the peace.

"The sheriff also is quite likely based to some degree on Thompson's own father, who had many of the same characteristics: a born politician who knew just what to say to win favor with anyone and who appeared friendly on the outside but inside harbored a great deal of pent up rage and misanthropy.

[9][10] The 1997 film Cop Land, references the novel's title with the population of its setting, the fictional town of Garrison, New Jersey.