The Marauders
A Novel
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4.1 • 90 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
"A little Elmore Leonard, a little Charles Portis, and very much its own uniquely American self. . .Tom Cooper has written one hell of a novel." –Stephen King
When the BP oil spill devastates the Louisiana Gulf Coast, the citizens of the bayou town of Jeanette scramble to replace their lost livelihoods. Among them is one-armed, pill-popping shrimper Gus Lindquist, who has nothing left but the dying glimmer of a boyhood dream: finding the lost treasure of pirate Jean Lafitte. With his metal detector and Pez dispenser full of Oxycontin, Lindquist steers his rickety shrimp boat into the savage Louisiana swamps.
Along his journey, Gus meets a motley crew of characters: Wes Trench, a young Cajun man estranged from his father since his mother died in Katrina; Reginald and Victor Toup, sociopathic twin brothers and drug lords; Cosgrove and Hanson, petty criminals searching for a secret that could make them rich, or kill them; and Brady Grimes, a BP middleman out to make his career by swindling the townsfolk of Jeanette, among them his own mother.
Funny, dark, and compelling, The Marauders throws these characters on a rollicking collision course that all of them might not survive.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Like a scent that clings to your skin, it’s impossible to shake the feeling of Tom Cooper’s superb crime story, which is steeped in the swampy grit of the Louisiana bayou. Against the distant gloom of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, opiate-addled shrimp boatman Gus Lindquist undertakes a quixotic search for lost treasure, tangling with a memorable cast of petty crooks, drug runners, and corporate con men along the way. Lindquist’s pill habit gives the story a soft-focus surrealism, but there’s nothing fuzzy about Cooper's prose. The Marauders is Elmore Leonard meets Mark Twain: wickedly smart, deviously funny, and warmly humane.
Customer Reviews
Sardonic, incomplete
Very vivid description of bayou and it's way of life. Felt like I was there. Plot was uneven but held me. Failed in the end.
Second reading
I just finished this novel for the second time and I highly recommend it for it is a great story. Great character development, plot, relevance and descriptions of the Louisiana swamp landscape.
Marauders
Outstanding read