Fat Tuesday

June 2, 1997
New Orleans police lieutenant Burke Basile has nothing left to lose. He mistakenly shot his best friend and partner in the midst of a drug raid; now he has found his wife in the shower with another man. Hungry for justice, Basile resigns his job in order to go after the man he blames for everything: criminal defense attorney Pinkie Duvall, who is himself a master criminal. Basile's plan for exposing the slimy attorney involves masquerading as a priest in order to kidnap Pinkie's unhappy trophy wife, Remy. His ragtag squad of helpers includes a churchgoing madam, a weasly sex offender with training both as an actor and a priest and a loyal swamp rat named Dredd. In Pinkie's corner loom all of the muscle that deep pockets and deep affiliations with organized crime can buy. Still up for grabs is a GQ-style cop whose huge debt to the mob, and whose wife's beautiful face, hang in the balance, and a police captain whose ambitions for his own career just might be more important than human lives. A wild card comes into play when Basile unexpectedly falls for his captive, as Brown expertly pushes her story toward an explosive Mardi Gras conclusion. Brown's trademark mix of action and romance (Exclusive, etc.) is on display in this suspenseful, if rarely subtle, tale of revenge and corruption. 500,000 first printing; major ad/promo; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club main selections.

May 1, 1997
Pinkie Duvall is evil, a prominent and powerful lawyer whose clients commit most of the crime in New Orleans. He met his wife when she was a child and had her educated to his requirements. He treats her as he treats his orchids but uses threats against her younger sister to keep her in line. Burke is the "incorruptible cop" who sets out to avenge his buddy's death, clean out the bad cops, and get revenge against Pinkie. Brown's forte is devising plots, spiced with blatant sexuality, that keep her readers guessing. Unfortunately, the stereotypical figures in this novel give it an uncharacteristic lack of excitement. Given Brown's best-seller status, however, libraries can expect demand and should buy accordingly. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 2/1/97; Literary Guild main selection; Doubleday Book Club selection.]--Andrea Lee Shuey, Dallas P.L.

April 1, 1997
Brown's well-structured and suspenseful novels, including "The Witness" (1995) and "Exclusive", are phenomenally popular, and her newest, a hot-blooded tangle involving a narcotics division cop and a powerful and corrupt attorney, will surely find a slot on the best-seller lists. Brown sets her latest cleverly plotted tale in New Orleans, using the shorthand of that city's reputation for excess, sleaze, and wiliness with a minimum of fuss and even a touch of humor. It all begins in a courtroom where a slimeball named Bardo is acquitted of murdering a good cop. Bardo's attorney, Pinkie Duvall, is cartoon-evil, living in a sterile mansion where his gorgeous wife, Remy, is pretty much held prisoner, a trophy species just like the orchids he obsessively cultivates. The abused daughter of a junkie whore, Remy endures Pinkie's tyranny for the sake of her sister, an even more voluptuously lovely young woman who, by Pinkie's decree, is locked up in a convent. With all this captive beauty on the simmer, things are going to explode, and they do when the slain cop's partner, Burke Basile, seeks revenge. His plan is dangerous, murky, and as full of twists as a swamp full of gators, and, yes, it does involve a lot of risky up-close-and-personal time with Remy, who, thankfully, is not as lobotomized as she seems. ((Reviewed April 1, 1997))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1997, American Library Association.)