Death in the Vieux Carre': A New Orleans Crime Thriller (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798991206945)

When justice becomes a commodity, who can you trust?

In the sultry heat of New Orleans, Detective Renee Dubois has seen enough corruption to know the difference between justice and theater. But when a respected federal judge turns up dead in the Barataria swamps-half-eaten by alligators-she and her partner Detective Kelsey Griffith uncover a conspiracy that reaches into the darkest corners of the Crescent City.

Judge Charles Taylor wasn't just murdered. He was silenced.

For years, Taylor had been secretly documenting a web of corruption that protected the Domingo crime family's drug empire. Judges dismissed cases on technicalities. Evidence mysteriously disappeared. Witnesses changed their testimony. And at the center of it all, the untouchable Jean-Paul Domingo built his fortune on the blood and addiction of New Orleans.

But Taylor left behind more than just a body in the swamp. Hidden in plain sight are the secrets that powerful men kill to protect-and the evidence that could bring down an entire network of corrupt officials who've turned the scales of justice into a marketplace.

As Dubois and Griffith dig deeper, they discover they can't trust anyone-not their fellow cops, not the prosecutors, not even the judges hearing their cases. Someone is watching their every move, and the same forces that silenced Taylor are now hunting them.

In a city where everything has a price, two detectives must decide what they're willing to sacrifice for the truth. Because in New Orleans, the line between the law and the lawless isn't just blurred-it's been bought and paid for.

Some secrets are worth dying for. Others are worth killing for.