After Hurricane Katrina slams New Orleans into the middle ages, New Iberia detective Dave Robicheaux is despatched to help maintain law and order in the Big Easy. The discovery that his friend, Jude LeBlanc, a Catholic priest with cancer and a heroin habit, is missing in New Orleans’ Ninth Ward leads Dave into a labyrinthine mystery that involves black looters ripping off gems, drugs and counterfeit cash from the mansion of criminal kingpin Sidney Kovick, white vigilantes dispensing their own justice and a mysterious character who casts a menacing shadow over the streets of New Iberia. Coincidentally, the main suspect in the shooting, Otis Baylor, is the rather of a teenage girl who was raped by three of the four looters two years earlier.

Title

The Tin Roof Blowdown

Author

James Lee Burke

Year

2007

Publisher

Simon & Schuster

Reading date

December 25,2007 – January 1, 2008

Genre

Detective mystery

Plot

After Hurricane Katrina slams New Orleans into the middle ages, New Iberia detective Dave Robicheaux is despatched to help maintain law and order in the Big Easy. The discovery that his friend, Jude LeBlanc, a Catholic priest with cancer and a heroin habit, is missing in New Orleans’ Ninth Ward leads Dave into a labyrinthine mystery that involves black looters ripping off gems, drugs and counterfeit cash from the mansion of criminal kingpin Sidney Kovick, white vigilantes dispensing their own justice and a mysterious character who casts a menacing shadow over the streets of New Iberia. Coincidentally, the main suspect in the shooting, Otis Baylor, is the rather of a teenage girl who was raped by three of the four looters two years earlier.

Characters

As well as featuring his family – former nun wife Molly and adopted South American orphan Alafair – the story brings in Dave’s former “Bobbsey Twins of NOPD Homicide” partner Cletus Purcel to help unravel the deadly effects of a post-Katrina looting frenzy that went wrong. Major parts go to Bernard Melancon, a black looter whose brother is shot when the boost goes wrong, Otis Baylor, a successful  insurance salesman suspected of shooting Eddie Melancon and killing another black youth, and Ronald Bledsoe, the menacing figure who turns up in New Iberia out of the blue. Bit parts go to Otis’ red-neck next door neighbour Tom Claggart  and James Boyd “Bo Diddley” Wiggins, Dave’s uncouth former college roommate who has become a big deal billionaire. Non-speaking roles go to Father Jude LeBlanc, who is a kind of sacrificial figure to the wrath of Katrina and the evil of mankind, and New Orleans itself, the “drowned whore of Babylon”, whose beauty is described through retrospective contrasts with the post-hurricane destruction.

Resolution

Eventually Dave figures out that Bledsoe is competing with rather than working for Sidney Kovick, so he uses competitive pressure to unravel the mystery. Coincidence plays a little too much of a role in winding up the story, but the final chapter, in which Bledsoe seeks to wreak revenge on Alafair, is a gripping conclusion.

Theme

Tin Roof is about betrayal and atonement: The great betrayal is the abandonment of New Orleans to the hurricane and its aftermath by the Federal Government. The “small” betrayal is Bertrand Melancon’s theft of the boat from Jude LeBlanc, which sentenced both the priest and his flock to death through drowning. In the final chapter, Bertrand seeks to atone for his action by his self-sacrifice to the waters south of New Orleans. Some characters are beyond redemption, such as Bledsoe and possibly Clete, while Dave has been redeemed by his new life in New Iberia.

Recommend

This is a compelling and highly relevant novel. It is a damning indictment of the Federal response to Katrina and a lament for the New Orleans’ soul, which was drowned by the hurricane and left out to dry by the government. However, it is never didactic: The story carries this commentary, reflections and descriptions on a powerfully flowing narrative with engaging characters.

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