A Long Time Dead

Fresh out of special forces training in the Army, Matthew Langley (as in Langley, Va., we assume) arrives in New Orleans, signs up as a security guard and immediately is put on duty in a riverfront warehouse. On his first night at work a young boy appears, shoots at Langley, who then corners him; inexplicably, Aristile Granger, Langley's new boss, pk shows up with a gun and cold-bloodedly murders the boy. Everyone, including the police, wants to drop the case, but Langley won't; he proceeds to follow leads that apparently go nowhere. Granger's beautiful wife is the only person on his side--and provides Langley with an interlude of much-needed loving and fun--but after a while, even she seems to be part of a conspiracy centered on smuggling. Thompson, author of The Blue Room , convincingly evokes a dank, forbidding side of New Orleans, and his plotting is superb: the reader doesn't know where Langley's quest is heading until the end of the book. (June)