The Devil's Muse
A Maureen Coughlin Novel
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4.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
A Southern Indie Bookseller Alliance 2017 Summer OKRA pick!
One of Kirkus Review’s “11 Thrillers That Will Keep You Awake This Summer”
Watch the trailer for The Devil's Muse here: https://vimeo.com/224000865
In the thrilling fifth book in the critically acclaimed series that’s “edgy, dangerous, but pulsing with life” (Bill Ott, Booklist), a Mardi Gras parade turns deadly.
It’s Mardi Gras in New Orleans and rookie cop Maureen Coughlin has no idea what she’s in for. Her night working the parades begins calmly enough—until a half-naked man careens through the crowd and throws himself onto the hood of an oncoming SUV. As she tries to deal with the incident amid the pulsing chaos of the parade, Maureen hears gunshots. Moments later, with three wounded and a handful of drunken witnesses, Maureen has a full-fledged investigation on her hands. Who was the shooter? Who was he after? Who’s the next target? City bigwigs begin pressuring Maureen and her crew for quick answers. And with an amateur camera crew intent on capturing “the real Mardi Gras” for their YouTube channel, an incompetent supervising detective, and tense race relations in a city more likely to mistrust cops than ever, it’s going to be a very long night—and a memorable first Mardi Gras—for Maureen.
With The Devil’s Muse, the acclaimed crime writer Bill Loehfelm conjures rowdy New Orleans in all its mess and marvel, and sends Maureen deep into the city on another wild, high-octane adventure.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Loehfelm's low-key fifth novel featuring New Orleans beat cop Maureen Coughlin (after 2016's Let the Devil Out) finds the native New Yorker and rookie patrol officer working her first Mardi Gras. She has just pulled an emaciated man wearing nothing but hot pink zebra-print tights off the hood of an SUV. He's obviously under the influence of a powerful hallucinogen, but when gunshots ring out nearby, Coughlin pushes through the crowds to find multiple people injured. Shortly thereafter, she's notified that the junkie in the tights has died. In the chaotic hours that follow, Coughlin maneuvers through drunken revelers, an annoying street-level journalist with her own camera crew, and warring gang members to connect the mysteries of the shooting and the overdose. Fans of police procedurals will enjoy the grittiness of the narrative, but the relatively easy crime solving and the lack of any substantial character progression make this outing a bit formulaic.
