Everyone loves a thrilling murder mystery. There’s something about the being involved in the unraveling of clues that makes your heart speed up: investigating suspects, following the trail, creating theories and the inevitable race to capture the murderer at the end before they kill the final target. However, have you ever read a mystery story where part of the plot is knowing who the murderer is from the very beginning?
Burke Basile is a hard-headed but honorable cop in the New Orleans Police Department. When his partner and best friend are killed in a drug raid, Basile is bent on revenge against the man he knows to be responsible: Wayne Bardo.
The problem is there is next to nothing Basile can do because Bardo’s defense attorney is the flamboyant and well-known Pinkie Duvall, who manages to get Bardo released without charges after a jury trial. To make things worse, Basile finds his wife has been cheating on him. Spurred by frustration and a lack of ability to find justice from within his position as a cop, Basile quits his job and forms the plan of a man with nothing left to lose.
In the meantime, we meet Remy Duvall, the young and seemingly flawless wife of Pinkie. It soon becomes apparent that theirs is not a happy union. Reading through the viewpoint of Remy, we feel her apathy towards her husband and overall unhappiness. Pinkie is domineering, possessive and condescending. Unfortunately, we find ourselves disappointed in Remy for simply absorbing her husband’s sugarcoated abuse. Through Remy, it is revealed that Pinkie’s business affairs are anything but clean as he controls murderers and drug dealers whom he acquitted in the past.
Basile plants himself in the life of Mrs. Duvall as a preacher in need of donations for charity. However, his plan runs much deeper as he targets Pinkie, who Basile believes to be the center of drugs, murders and corruption within the department. Once his plans start rolling, nothing can stop them, not even once he realizes that maybe Remy is a victim too. Basile is forced to face the past, his own deeply rooted guilt and the unavoidable feelings he develops for Remy. However his actions can’t be undone, sparking what literally becomes a battle to the death.
Sandra Brown has crafted her story in an intriguing fashion, blatantly displaying the “good guy” and the “bad guy.” As a result, we are left in the thrill of figuring out who will ultimately come out on top in their battle of smarts, wills and morality.
Every time you think you have the character’s plan of action mapped out, Brown throws in a twist and you are forced back to the beginning of the puzzle, wondering what options are left to pursue. Brown is also skilled in cleverly covering blocks of time when she switches between characters. We forget that as we follow one character in time, the others are meanwhile involved in unmentioned activities that turn into surprises for later in the plot.
This story is fast with challenges and twists that force you to keep reading until the very last page. More than one life hangs in the balance, dependent upon questions that are answered at a painstakingly-suspenseful pace. The theories of possible betrayal and morality build. We wait for the final straw that will break the camel’s back, after which only one man will be left standing in the bayous of New Orleans.
