Set in New Orleans shortly before and during the Katrina catastrophe, Abel's outstanding third Danny Chaisson crime novel (after 2002's The Burying Field
) strikes with hurricane force, leaving plenty of shattered truisms in its wake. When sadistic hoodlums kidnap Louis Sams, who's been pressured by the Feds to turn in his crooked concrete manufacturer boss, Danny, a former assistant DA now making a slim living with insurance claims and deposition summaries, desperately tries to save Sams. As Danny slogs through a city violent at best and now caught up in a killing rage, drowning because of engineering failures, construction shortcuts and venal politicians, he discovers that all he and some of the poorest of the storm's victims have is each other. Brilliantly executed, Abel's exploration of decency and grace in the face of human brutality and natural disaster testifies to mutual respect, the only thing, Danny knows, that keeps the knife from your throat. (Aug.)
