Bad Karma in the Big Easy
Publication Date: November 13, 2012
310 pages,
Astor + Blue Editions
Genres: Mystery, Adult
Andy Broussard, the plump and
proud New Orleans medical examiner, obviously loves food. Less apparent to the
casual observer is his hatred of murderers. Together with his gorgeous
sidekick, psychologist Kit Franklyn, the two make a powerful, although
improbable, mystery-solving duo. Among the dead collected in The Big Easy
floodwaters after Hurricane Katrina are three nude female bodies, all caught in
the same brush tangle, none with water in their lungs. Broussard knows in his
ample gut that this was not an act of God, and not the work of Katrina. But
Broussard has perhaps the biggest challenge of his colorful career. The city
and all its records are destroyed, practically the entire population is
scattered, the police force has no offices, and many of the rank and file (who
haven't defected) are homeless. Soon, Broussard and his sidekick are on a
dangerous journey through the obscenely damaged city, leading them to a kind of
evil that neither of them could imagine.
My Review
It’s like Bones,
or Law & Order: SVU, or all the
other cool crimes shows, just without Bones and Booth and Olivia and Elliot,
instead there’s the “plump and proud” Broussard, and psychologist sidekick Kit.
Bad Karma in the Big Easy could
easily have its own TV show.
First off, I’ve got to be honest, I haven’t read any of the
other books in this series. I was contacted to review this book, and I didn’t
do my research. *sigh* BUT, you don’t have to read the other books to know what’s
going on. It’s like I said earlier, this book could be its own TV show, and
generally, you don’t have to watch the previous episode of a show to know what’s
going on in the current episode. So that’s a big thumbs up!
At first, I was skeptical going into this. Would I like it?
It’s not to my typical tastes. (I’m a YA fantasy reader, in case you didn’t
know.) However, once I got about a tenth of the way through the book I was
finding myself enjoying the storyline. I learned quite a bit of random medical
and various other jargon and factoids. I also laughed out loud intermittently
throughout the book.
The characters were great! Broussard had his own unique
personality that I could picture quite easily, and Kit Franklyn was an interesting
contrast to Broussard. The only thing I wish I could have seen, and felt, more
of, was the dynamic between the two. This could also be said of the other few
characters that were introduced. Maybe I wasn’t seeing it as much because I
hadn’t read the other books? Also, I wasn’t really sure what Kit actually
contributed through her profession, to the story. Don’t get me wrong, I liked
her character and the plot developments, I just didn’t get a lot of
psychiatrist vibes from her points of view.
The book’s plot had me guessing, and making a fool of
myself, the entire time I was reading. Murder mysteries always have you
thinking you know what the heck’s going to happen, and I had my theories, but
what actually happened in the book had my theories looking pretty stupid. It’s
definitely a shocking revelation when everything finally comes together in the
end.
All in all, I went in to Bad
Karma in the Big Easy not
expecting much, but I actually managed to enjoy it. I would definitely
recommend this book/series to anyone who thinks they might be interested in
starting the Murder/Mystery genre, as well as anyone who’s already into it.
*Note: I
received a copy of this book to review from the publisher. This in no way
altered my opinion/review.
