The Cassandra Prophecy

Searching for the killer of his errant younger brother, Secret Service agent Clay Rodgers finds all kinds of slimy clues crawling out from under the rocks of his Mississippi Delta hometown in this uneven tale of crime in the New South. When their father cut off his spending money, Clay's brother Robert left LSU to work for Cajun strip-joint owner Antonio Brouchard, rumored to be a drug smuggler. After he discovers his brother's safety box crammed with cash, Clay dismisses the official verdict that Robert died while interrupting a burglary on the family yacht Cassandra . He enlists the help of old flame Linda Donetti, who works in Brouchard's favorite bar; the pair rekindle their romance even as responses to an ad placed by Clay link the Cassandra to a druglord in Biloxi's Vietnamese community and reveal ugly truths about the Rodgers family. Wilson ( Silent Witness ) favors a slow expository style that detracts from his excellent dialogue and undercuts the tension, but he paints a vivid picture of offshore drug-running and points a nice contrast between old Cajun passions and the cynicism of the modern South. ( Apr. )