Sunset Limited
James Lee Burke
The latest adventures of Cajun cop Dave Robicheaux make for a powerfully lyric tale in which old crimes stir new passions. At first, it's hard to see all the connections between the book's beginning vignettes -- the unsolved, 40-year-old crucifixion of prominent labor leader Jack Flynn; the return to New Iberia of Flynn's famous photojournalist daughter, Megan, and her movie director brother, Cisco; the recent rape of a black teen-ager; the subsequent shootings of two white brothers; Willie "Cool Breeze" Broussard's run-in with the New Orleans mob; the long-ago suicide of his wife, Ida; the haunted memory of alcoholic Lisa Terrebonne. But the past provides the threads with which Burke weaves the fabric of good and evil, corruption and betrayal.
Judas Child
Carol O'Connell
Taking a break from her acclaimed Mallory series, O'Connell delivers a compelling story of psychological suspense when two girls disappear from a private school just before Christmas. The case is a chilling echo of the long-ago rape and murder of small-town cop Rouge Kendall's twin sister, for which a local priest was convicted. Now Rouge wonders if the right man is behind bars, as does forensic psychologist Ali Cray, another victim of childhood trauma.
The Red Zone
Tim Green
As he did in "Outlaws," Green puts his experience as a former player for the Atlanta Falcons to good use in another football thriller. When Evan Chase, owner of the Florida Marauders, is murdered, the prime suspect is the team's star linebacker Luther Zorn, who has been playing off-field with Chase's wife. Fortunately, attorney Madison McCall has some experience defending football stars, thanks to Outlaws, and she's soon on the case, discovering conspiracy and corruption in the process.
Fever Season
Barbara Hambly
Hambly first introduced Paris-educated surgeon Ben January in "A Free Man of Color," set in 19th-century New Orleans. Here, in the savage summer of 1833, the complex January must deal not only with a cholera epidemic gripping New Orleans but also with a crime involving a runaway slave. Hambly's atmospheric novel is based on the true story of Delphine Lalaurie, whose shockingly cruel treatment of her slaves was legendary.
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