If anyone was going to write a crime thriller around the events of Hurricane Katrina, who better than James Lee Burke. Not a question, a statement of fact. I came across Dave Robicheaux only in the author's previous novel 'Pegasus Descending', an oversight on my part as I had been searching for somebody who could bring to life the city of New Orleans for quite some time. In many ways, this is a disturbing thriller for anyone who has a social conscience. And Robicheaux has which, of course, means the author can detail the aftermath of the devastation with some serious social consequences. Mixing a taut hunt for a group of rapists, a killer of two black looters, coupled with a very serious psychopath on a mission to locate some very expensive stolen property, Robicheaux gradually pieces together a really complex crime scenario all the while struggling to come to terms with the lack of official activity in dealing with the destruction in the wake of Katrina. This is a powerful condemnation of America's ability to ignore a disaster of epic proportions when it suits their government's programme all the while keeping the reader constantly involved in the criminal storyline. Forget about blood diamonds, this book is a gem.