Introduction

Herbert Marioneaux, a politician infamous for changing his mind on hot-button issues is found murdered. Compelling evidence implicates Eddie Pitkin, a social justice activist who specializes in making the wealthy and powerful uncomfortable with their past. When Detective Wallace Hartman unearths a potential alibi witness, along with a troubled relationship that puts a cloud of suspicion over the victim’s son, her investigation into the dark heart of the political establishment sparks waves of escalating violence across Baton Rouge. Possible sabotage from within her department, forces Wallace to go it alone as she untangles a trail of old and disturbing secrets.

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Excerpt

Wallace Hartman didn’t fancy herself a burglar, but when Davis McCone called with larceny in his heart she jumped at the chance—even though she was a Baton Rouge police detective and she would be stealing from her own mother.

Uncle Davis. She had called him that when she was a young girl, although he wasn’t really her uncle, just a good family friend. In fact, Davis was the man her mother had dated, before electing to marry Walter Hartman instead. They had all managed to stay friends, and Davis and his eventual wife, Gail, had been uncle and aunt to the Hartman children.

“Come have dinner with us tomorrow evening,” Davis said.

“Us who?”

“Me and your mother.”

“She didn’t mention the two of you were having dinner.”

“I only managed to talk her into it a little while ago. It’s a birthday shindig.”

“You know she doesn’t like calling attention to her birthday.”

“She enjoys acting like she doesn’t like it.”

“Why do you want me there? I’ll just be a third wheel.”

“Not a wheel … a thief. And bring Mason.”

Mason Cunningham had entered Wallace’s life several months ago as a DEA analyst pursuing an investigation that intertwined with one of her own. He had remained as much more than that. Since Thursday, Mason had been in DC. He was returning this afternoon.

“Okay. We’ll be there,” she said. “And just so I’ve got this straight, you actually want me to steal something for you?”

“You’ll enjoy it. I promise. And your mother will be delighted. I promise that, as well.”

There wasn’t much Wallace wouldn’t do for Davis. When Wallace’s father had been killed, along with her husband and her elder brother, by a man who had made a vocation of drinking and driving, her life had hit a wall. Wallace and her mother, Carol, and surviving brother, Lex, had all hit the wall. Carol had gone almost mute with terror, confessing to Wallace that she’d become afraid of her own shadow. That if so much could be taken so quickly, then nothing was safe.

Instead of becoming afraid, Wallace had become angry. Angry that the killer was given a slap on the wrist and put back on the street. Angry that those who killed with a bullet the size of a fingertip could be imprisoned for life, even executed, but those who killed with a bullet the size of a Buick were often dealt with as if they were the victims.

Davis and Gail had worked hard to provide a sense of stability for the remnants of Wallace’s family. But it was Davis who had helped the most. He made sure friends and relatives came around to lift the burden of the day-to-day when necessary. He took time away from his law practice to make sure things that needed to be done got done.

Eventually, from somewhere deep inside, Carol found a way to cope. At first, she focused on putting one foot in front of the other, trying hard to impose some distance between herself and the devastating events. Then, one day, the dam broke and she began a period of proper grieving.

It had been painful to see, but Wallace took it as a sign that it was okay to begin the process of repairing and getting on with her own life. She considered herself to still be a work in progress, and she credited Davis and his wife with helping to make that progress possible.

Sitting on the back steps of her Garden District bungalow, a half-finished cup of coffee on the concrete step next to her, Wallace watched a pair of squirrels chase each other around the trunk and through the branches of the giant pecan tree that dominated the back of her lot. She marveled at the speed and agility of the chittering creatures as they made gravity-defying jumps through the leafy canopy.

As she reached for the book that lay next to her cup of coffee her phone buzzed again. It was Chief of Detectives Jason Burley, her boss. She felt sure he wasn’t calling to invite her to a birthday dinner. view abbreviated excerpt only...

Discussion Questions

1. When the Chief of Police is explaining to Wallace how he wants her to handle the investigation of the Marioneaux murder, he tells her: “I’m counting on you to understand, in very practical terms, the difference between a rush to judgment and a sprint to the truth.” Which of her personal traits aided Wallace in fulfilling this mandate? What external forces hindered her? Would the political climate in Baton Rouge have been a help or a hindrance or both?

2. Herbert Marioneaux claimed he had changed from being a committed segregationist to a believer in and proponent of racial, social, and political equality. Why was the general public so reluctant to believe that his changes were genuine? Had he evolved in the other direction, do you think people would have been as reluctant to believe him?

3. Herbert Marioneaux’s wife, his son, and Garrett Landry, his legislative aide, paint very different pictures of him. How does it happen that one person can be so different to so many people? How does your impression of Marioneaux change throughout the story?

4. How do you feel about Eddie Pitkin’s particular quest for social justice?

5. Photographs and videos play a pivotal role at several points in the story. How did Davis McCone’s ‘gift’ of the old photograph of himself and Wallace’s mother affect your view of him?

6. Several of Wallace’s relationships with other women are important to the plot: Carol Hartman (her mother), LeAnne Hawkins (her detective partner), Melissa Voorhees (the police chief in Cavanaugh), and MaryBeth Duncan (the property management agent in New Roads). But, what did these relationships also reveal about Wallace, as a character, and the world she inhabits?

7. Two mother-and-child relationships figure prominently in the story: Wallace and her mother Carol, and Glenn Marioneaux and his mother Dorothy. What struck you as the most significant features of these?

8. How did the discovery that the principal villain had a secret life change your perspective on his words and actions before that?

Weblinks

»	Author's website
»	Author Appearances
»	Author Interview
»	Setting the story in Baton Rouge

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