In my mind, my indifference to Coco’s call for help played a part in her death. Rather than dwell on my complicity, I moved on to my responsibilities. – Burleigh Drummond
New Orleans private investigator Burleigh Drummond takes his responsibilities very seriously. So when he learns ex-girlfriend Coco Robicheaux has been brutally raped and murdered, and that several phone calls from Coco he had ignored were placed only hours before her death, he makes it his responsibility to find out who killed her and why.
Drummond’s investigation takes him deep into the seedy underbelly of the Big Easy, where he discovers that Coco had become an unwilling pawn in a plan to influence the mayoral election. To get to the ultimate truth Drummond will have to thread his way through a maze of corrupt politicians, crooked cops, the Velvet Mafia, and an entrenched, old money blueblood society who will close ranks to thwart any perceived threat to their power and control.
At first blush the wisecracking, gin & tonic drinking Burleigh Drummond brings to mind Philip Marlowe. Indeed, author Kent Westmoreland even tips his cap to Raymond Chandler by having Drummond describe one of the characters in Baronne Street with words reminiscent of Marlowe’s description of Moose Malloy in Farewell, My Lovely. (more…)
