City of the Dead

Set during the summer of 2005 as Hurricane Katrina approaches, this incendiary sequel to 2011’s Thou Shalt Kill from the pseudonymous Blake (British author Boris Starling) takes Pittsburgh cop Franco Patrese to New Orleans, to assume a new job as an FBI agent. At a fancy Fourth of July party hosted by the city’s richest man, St. John Varden, Patrese bumps into Varden’s personal assistant, Cindy Rojciewicz, who arranges to meet Patrese at a bar later to confide chilling evidence of human sacrifices. When Cindy doesn’t appear at the bar, Patrese goes to her apartment, where he finds feisty NOPD homicide detective Selma Fawcett—and Cindy’s naked, blood-drained body minus a leg. Patrese teams with Fawcett to investigate Cindy’s and other similar ritualistic murders. The suspects range from Marie Laveau, modern incarnation of the ancient voodoo queen, to high public officials. Blake’s edgy, cynical take on the Katrina tragedy blends easily with Patrese’s increasingly desperate quest for justice and survival. Agent: Caradoc King, A.P. Watt. (July)