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Readers' rating:
Published Jan 2015
320 pages
Genre: Thrillers
Publication Information
"You have a temper, Officer Coughlin, and a propensity for violence ... You're a bit of a hazard. To others. To yourself."
Maureen Coughlin is a bona fide New Orleans cop now, and, with her training days behind her, she likes to think she's getting the lay of the land. Then a mysterious corpse leads to more questions than answers, and a late-night traffic stop goes very wrong. The fallout leaves Maureen contending with troubled friends, fraying loyalties, cop-hating enemies old and new, and an elusive, spectral, and murderous new nemesis—and all the while navigating the twists and turns of a city and a police department infected with dysfunction and corruption.
Bill Loehfelm is a rising star in crime fiction. And his Maureen Coughlin is the perfect protagonist: complicated, strong-willed, sympathetic (except when she's not), and as fully realized in Loehfelm's extraordinary portrayal as the New Orleans she patrols. The first two installments in this series won Loehfelm accolades as well as fans, and Doing the Devil's Work only ups the ante. It's even faster, sharper, and more thrilling than its predecessors. Taut and fiery, vibrant and gritty, and peopled with unforgettable characters, this is the sinuous, provocative story of a good cop struggling painfully into her own.
"Starred Review. Marvelously complex ... every bit as good as its standout predecessors, and provides fresh evidence that Maureen merits a long literary life." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. Dialogue doesn't get much snappier, and the complicated plot (which not only introduces the militia group, but resolves the fate of the despicable murderer Scales from Way) is deftly handled. This series just keeps getting better." - Kirkus
"Starred Review. As he's shown in the earlier installments in this series, Loehfelm has a real feel for capturing the nearly impenetrable culture of the NOPD...As impressive as his ability to evoke a sense of place is Loehfelm's creation of a lead character of such remarkable depth and complexity. Equal parts toughness, vulnerability, naïveté, and street smarts, Coughlin has clearly established herself as one of the most compelling crime-fiction protagonists to appear in the last five years...she is one of a kind. There is no more fascinating beat cop in crime fiction, and when Coughlin earns her detective shield, the genre's A-list stars better start watching their backs." - Booklist
This information about Doing the Devil's Work was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Celeste Marshall
Bill Loehfelm is the author of The Devil in Her Way, The Devil She Knows, Bloodroot, and Fresh Kills. He lives in New Orleans with his wife, the writer AC Lambeth, and plays drums in the Ibervillains, a rock-and-soul cover band.
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