This is one of the best detective novels I've read in a long time. I couldn't put it down. I had to go back and read it two more times. I kept seeing how well the story developed. The clues are there if you can see them. It's an excellent read.

I can't wait for another book from Mr. Blackwell.

Ever just been peacefully minding your own business when all heck broke loose and then get stuck holding the bag? No, really, holding the bag that everyone is after.

Ever start a project that was do-able if a bit of work only to have it get bigger and bigger and morph into something completely different, eventually sucking up all your time and resources and pulling in everyone in your circle of friends and acquaintances, more than a few strangers and your lazy dogs besides?

Well, maybe you haven't, but Jonny C. certainly has. What starts out as a routine divorce investigation of a cheating wife with an expected and pleasant side benefit of an expense paid trip to the French Quarter, turns and twists until what's important isn't what's going on in the Big Easy, steamy as that is, but what happened years ago back in Catherine, Mississippi. The frolics and actions of the past are the seed from which the present grows and the plot is formed. And the search to bring that past to light leads from an exclusive guesthouse in the French Quarter to the mucky, sweaty bayous along the Gulf Coast and a drug deal gone horribly wrong.

So settle down with a really good cup of java--doctor it up like Jonny C. if you must or drink it black like Vera. You are in for a great read! New Orleans, the Gulf Coast and South Mississippi--all drawn with an expert hand and a keen eye for character.