Nearer Home
A Novel
-
-
4.5 • 2 Ratings
-
-
- $12.99
-
- $12.99
Publisher Description
The irresistible, razor-sharp second book in the post-Katrina New Orleans-set crime series featuring unforgettable and gutsy reporter Nola Céspedes
Early one morning, Times-Picayune crime reporter Nola Céspedes goes for her regular run in Audubon Park. More than the heat of the dawning New Orleans day, she's trying to outrun her growing unease with the man she's seeing, who is pushing her to get more serious. Instead, Nola finds herself at the scene of a crime when she discovers a dead body. Worse, Nola recognizes the victim: Judith Taffner, her former journalism professor at Tulane.
Not convinced Dr. Taffner's murder was the random work of a psychopath, and not one to put much trust in the good ol' boys of the NOPD, Nola takes it upon herself to investigate. She discovers that Dr. Taffner was working on two explosive stories, both of which would shock even this notoriously corrupt city. And when an apparently related murder occurs in the middle of New Orleans' packed Jazz Fest, Nola realizes it's only a matter of time before she becomes a ruthless killer's next target.
Rich with details of New Orleans and featuring an original, tough heroine as fascinating as the city itself, Nearer Home is the perfect follow-up to Joy Castro's Hell or High Water, confirming her status as a talented new crime writer to watch.
"Exquisite New Orleans background . . . a flawed but plucky heroine, and skillfully paced suspense make this a stay up way past your bedtime read."—Booklist (starred)
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Near the start of Castro's solid second crime novel set in post-Katrina New Orleans (after 2012's Hell or High Water), Nola C spedes, a staff writer for the Times-Picayune, stumbles across the ritually posed corpse of a woman while jogging in Audubon Park. C spedes recognizes the victim as Judith Taffner, her former and despised Tulane journalism professor, and while clues at the scene suggest the killing was the work of an obsessed psychopath, the reporter can't help wondering if they were designed to conceal the murderer's true motives. Compulsively curious, C spedes begins to unravel Taffner's secret lives, revealing her as a person by turns bright and self-deluding, a determined professor fatally entangled in the Big Easy culture of political and police corruption. Castro's prose is clean and to the point, and she shows considerable affection for New Orleans.
