Let the Devil Out

Loehfelm’s atmospheric but somewhat addled fourth outing for hard-charging New Orleans rookie cop Maureen Coughlin (after 2015’s Doing the Devil’s Work) finds the former cocktail waitress chafing during the final days of a suspension, self-medicating with whiskey to dull memories of the violent events that prompted her to leave her native New York a year earlier. She’s also disregarding the orders of her concerned supervisor, legendary Sgt. Preacher Boyd, to temporarily desist from digging into who recently shot up her home, especially any inquiries that might involve wealthy mover and shaker Solomon Heath. And Coughlin can’t resist trying to locate the prime suspect in the murders of two gun-running members of an extremist militia called the Watchmen Brigade. The action moves briskly through colorful Crescent City locales, but the plot, which involves shooting NOPD cops in ambushes, ends up making less sense than it should. Author tour. Agent: Barney Karpfinger, Karpfinger Agency. (July)