Get Ready for Hurricane Season with Tin Roof Blowdown

As we head into hurricane season 2009, I wanted to recommend a book – actually a mystery – that does a really good job of portraying New Orleans at the time of Hurricane Katrina – and presents a great mystery as well.

Tin Roof Blowdown, by James Lee Burke (the 16th Dave Robicheaux novel), places Iberia Parish’s Sherrif Robicheaux directly in the path of one of the strongest storms to hit Louisianna’s southern coast and its criminal aftermath. The book’s blurb calls it an “apocalyptical nightmare” in which Robicheaux is searching for two serial rapists, a morphine-addicted priest and a vigilante whose methods may be more dangerous than the criminals he is targeting.

The Washington Post calls Tin Roof Blowdown Burke’s “most ambitious novel” and I have to agree. The combination of hideous criminal activitiy and cataclysmic weather is always a sure bet, and Mr. Burke does a masterful job on both fronts. Hint: This book has been recommended for use in book clubs! Check it out. Meg