PHONES ARE OUT AND THE CITY’S UNDER WATER—A FIELD DAY FOR CRIMINALS! AND LOTS OF THEM ARE COPS… only direction she’s given: Get out there and keep the peace.
With communications down and all emergency services on search and rescue, all Skip can hope to accomplish is helping the person right in front of her. More than once that person turns out to be Billy, a gutsy 15-year-old from Treme who’s in greater danger of being swamped by his chaotic home life than the Cat 5 hurricane Skip shelters him from.
When she escorts him home and discovers the scene of a possible homicide, homicide detecting must take a back seat to maintaining order—if not peace. Outrageous rumors are swirling, stirring up unrest, but what really bothers her is the one about a police department order to use the chaos as a cover for “cleaning up” by rounding up criminals and assassinating them. Now that just can’t be true. Can it?
But after she hears it for the third time, Skip teams up with the only cop in the city she’s positive she can trust, her former partner, movie-star handsome, kickass, praline-sweet Adam Abasolo. They may not be able to fix everything, but, as the bodies pile up, they are damn sure going to hit back at the guys who’re giving their department a black eye.
On any regular weekday, New Orleans lives up to its billing as The Big Crazy. In post-Katrina New Orleans, where the dirty cops and lunatics are running the asylum, author Julie Smith also takes us inside the actual asylum, Charity Hospital emergency psych unit, an unexpected oasis of comfort in stark contrast to endless amounts of ever-present filthy water and hordes of half-drowned people.
Smith strikes just the right note, capturing the massive tragedy of the events and the inevitable comedy as the survivors struggle to make sense of the closest thing to hell squared that any of them has ever seen.
Mystery fans who love hard-boiled women sleuths, lots of action and adventure, and offbeat police procedurals will love Detective Skip Langdon.
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I loved this novel based on up close & personal events surrounding Hurricane Katrina, which most of us only heard about on the evening news. Don’t start reading it at bedtime, or you’ll be up all night. Julie Smith always delivers a skillfully written story with a tight & multilayered plot, and believable characters you care about. I received this book free and chose to make a voluntary, unbiased review.
Interesting, but compared to her other books, it was just. a reasonable read,
I really like Julie Smith. Whole series are all great reads.
Excellent story makes the aftermath of Katrina very real. What is was like without any infrastructure, transportation, food, electricity etc. Good mystery and how the characters coped with the disaster
I’ve been a fan of this series ever since Julie Smith introduced Skip Langdon. I went to High School in New Orleans and she’s talking about the city that I lived in…which is a bit wacky and unusual. Love her writing.
It’s a treat to get a new Skip Langdon! Great series!
I love all of Julie Smith’s books and can hardly wait for the next one to come out !
Julie Smith – Skip Langdon Series Bk 11 – The Big Crazy – Reviewed 10/25/19 – Read 10/24/19
Hurricane, Murder, Crime, Corruption and the life of the Big Easy!
New Orleans is battening down the hatches, evacuating and preparing for the predicted Cat 5 hurricane. Life for New Orleans homicide Detective Skip Langdon is the same as usual, keeping law and order, no matter what! The city is devasted with no electric, no phones, water everywhere, levees giving out, bodies piling up, no backups, hospitals shutting down and nothing, but nothing stops crime. When Skip takes in Billy, a 15-year-old, never would she expect where that action would take her. Her ex-partner Adam Abasolo is the only one she can trust besides her commander, but she has to be sure. While they try to help and rescue everyone they find and search to find out if the rumor of cops executing criminals and dumping the bodies is true! They find themselves racing to clean up the madness that has become the Big Crazy.
What did I like? I have a big love for “The Big Easy”. While I lived in the mid-west, I visited down there many times. I met some of the most wonderful people that became long-lasting friends. The food and the atmosphere are, as they say, “Easy” and I loved it. I am also a lover of strong female characters and Skip Langdon surely fits that description. Kickass and take names while taking care of her city!
What will you like? Excellent writing, editing, and amazing reading! The characters are so warm and friendly, you will wonder why you have not found them before now. The storyline is sassy, and you can feel the heartbeat of the city running through the words. The descriptions and details bring the city to life and you can feel the heat of the temperature and culture as you sit and read. Be careful, you might feel like packing up and moving! The Big Crazy will easily become your next favorite book.
@ddeegott
Released Date: 10/25/19 * Print Length: 278 pages * File Size: 3380 KB