Sergei Lobanov-Rostovsky, Professor of English at Kenyon College in Ohio might teach courses on Shakespeare, Renaissance poetry, film, and fiction writing, but he’s no slouch in the creative writing department either, with a series of crime novels featuring New Orleans lawyer Danny Chaisson written under the pseudonym of Kenneth Abel.
Read:
Down in the Flood (2009), where Danny Chaisson is approached by engineer Louis Sams who’s being pressured to testify against his employer, Gerald Vickers the owner of a concrete company called IndusCrete before a grand jury investigating corruption in the construction industry. Someone leaks his identity, and as a result he’s kidnapped by a pair of corrupt ex-cops, employed by Vickers’ business partner, mobster Jimmy Mancuso as Hurricane Katrina bears down on the city.
Chaisson’s supposed to have followed his mother-in-law and daughter out of town (his wife’s a Federal agent, required to stay in the city) but, of course, with his friend missing he stays on, riding out the storm and setting out in search of the secret location where he suspects Sams is being held as levees break and the flood waters rise relentlessly. Not quite The Tin Roof Blowdown, but not far off it.
Investigate availability of:
Danny Chaisson Series:
Cold Steel Rain (2000)
The Burying Field (2002)
Novels:
Bait (1994)
The Blue Wall (1996)