Shake the Devil Off

"A gripping suspense story, an indictment of the military's treatment of our soldiers . . . and a celebration of the resilience . . . of a great American city." —George Pelecanos, New York Times–bestselling author of The Turnaround and Hell to Pay

Zackery Bowen was one of the first soldiers to encounter the fledgling insurgency in Iraq. After years of military service he returned to New Orleans to tend bar and deliver groceries. In the weeks before Hurricane Katrina made landfall, he met Addie Hall, a pretty and high-spirited bartender. Their hard-partying endurance during and after Hurricane Katrina had news outlets around the world featuring the couple as the personification of what so many want to believe is the indomitable spirit of New Orleans.


But in October 2006, Bowen leaped from the rooftop bar of a French Quarter hotel. A note in his pocket directed the police to the body of Addie Hall. It was, according to NOPD veterans, one of the most gruesome crimes in the city's history. How had this popular, handsome father of two done such a thing?


Journalist Ethan Brown moved from New York City to the French Quarter to investigate this question. Brown's discovery that this tragedy could have been avoided if the military had simply not, in the words of Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, "absolutely and completely failed this soldier." Shake the Devil Off is a mesmerizing tribute to these lives lost.


"Heartbreaking." —Publishers Weekly, starred review


"Provocative . . . [Can] be read as a follow-up to Dexter Filkins's . . . The Forever War." —Lisa Scottoline, The New York Times Book Review

"Essential reading for those willing to face the awful truths about New Orleans—our nation's most misunderstood city." —Washington Post Book World