{"id":2228,"date":"2017-11-02T09:03:44","date_gmt":"2017-11-02T16:03:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/?p=2228"},"modified":"2017-11-02T09:03:44","modified_gmt":"2017-11-02T16:03:44","slug":"the-tough-side-of-the-big-easy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/?p=2228","title":{"rendered":"The tough side of the Big Easy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"devils\"<\/a>Bob Moyer knows New Orleans, and he knows good police procedurals. He finds much to praise in this lively novel.<\/p>\n

Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer<\/p>\n

THE DEVIL\u2019S MUSE. By Bill Loehfelm. Farrar Straus Giroux. 258 pages. $26.<\/p>\n

Mardi Gras.<\/p>\n

Most people see a chance to party, beads flying through the air, beads on the ground, people shouting at masked people on floats, happy children on their fathers\u2019 shoulders.<\/p>\n

Others, like rookie New Orleans police officer Maureen \u201cMo\u201d Coughlin and her colleagues, see nothing but potential disaster, bullets flying through the air, bodies on the ground, people shooting at masked people on floats, wounded children in their fathers\u2019 arms.<\/p>\n

Stationed along the St. Charles parade route of the Krewe of Muses, the police are the thin blue line against the chaos just waiting to break out, the crowd so dense, so packed together that Mo \u201c\u2026 could feel the collected body heat.\u201d<\/p>\n

When gunshots ring out, she and her partners spring into action. So does Bill Loehfelm\u2019s prose, as he embarks on more than 200 pages of real-time narration, taking the reader along for a roller-coaster ride where no one knows what\u2019s coming in the next paragraph.<\/p>\n

The author has created a real police procedural, as the cops race a \u201chundred yard dash\u201d to keep things under control. Along the way, Loehfelm takes us deep into New Orleans life, sending Maureen down \u201c\u2026streets like a redheaded Alice lost in some bizarre broke-down, broke-ass working-class Wonderland,\u201d past an old lady outside a bar selling Zapp potato chips and taking \u201c\u2026a long drag on a long cigarette,\u201d and past the \u201c\u2026best-looking cops she had ever seen\u201d \u2014\u201ctall, powerful, bright-eyed, black-haired [German] shepherds.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201crace\u201d comes to a halt after following Mo through \u201c\u2026overdoses, shootings, foot chases, fornicating couples, irate neighbors, citizen journalists, zombie stories and gangland parleys,\u201d enough action for a month, let alone one shift. The pace leaves Mo and her buddies just a little breathless and longing for a drink \u2014 before they do it all again the next shift.<\/p>\n

In this continuing series, Loehfelm once again proves he knows how to\u00a0laisser le bon lecture roulez.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bob Moyer knows New Orleans, and he knows good police procedurals. He finds much to praise in this lively novel. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer THE DEVIL\u2019S MUSE. By Bill Loehfelm. Farrar Straus Giroux. 258 pages. $26. Mardi Gras. Most people see a chance to party, beads flying through the air, beads on the ground, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1008,426],"tags":[1009,1010,1011,304],"class_list":["post-2228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mysteries","category-police-procedural","category-popular-fiction","tag-bill-loehfelm","tag-mardi-gras","tag-maureen-coughlin","tag-police-procedural"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2228"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2230,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2228\/revisions\/2230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}