Fat Tuesday - ISBNLookup.com

Publishers Weekly - Cahners\\Publishers_Weekly

New Orleans police lieutenant Burke Basile has nothing left to lose. He mistakenly shot his best friend and partner in the midst of a drug raid; now he has found his wife in the shower with another man. Hungry for justice, Basile resigns his job in order to go after the man he blames for everything: criminal defense attorney Pinkie Duvall, who is himself a master criminal. Basile's plan for exposing the slimy attorney involves masquerading as a priest in order to kidnap Pinkie's unhappy trophy wife, Remy. His ragtag squad of helpers includes a churchgoing madam, a weasly sex offender with training both as an actor and a priest and a loyal swamp rat named Dredd. In Pinkie's corner loom all of the muscle that deep pockets and deep affiliations with organized crime can buy. Still up for grabs is a GQ-style cop whose huge debt to the mob, and whose wife's beautiful face, hang in the balance, and a police captain whose ambitions for his own career just might be more important than human lives. A wild card comes into play when Basile unexpectedly falls for his captive, as Brown expertly pushes her story toward an explosive Mardi Gras conclusion. Brown's trademark mix of action and romance (Exclusive, etc.) is on display in this suspenseful, if rarely subtle, tale of revenge and corruption.

Library Journal

Pinkie Duvall is evil, a prominent and powerful lawyer whose clients commit most of the crime in New Orleans. He met his wife when she was a child and had her educated to his requirements. He treats her as he treats his orchids but uses threats against her younger sister to keep her in line. Burke is the "incorruptible cop" who sets out to avenge his buddy's death, clean out the bad cops, and get revenge against Pinkie. Brown's forte is devising plots, spiced with blatant sexuality, that keep her readers guessing. Unfortunately, the stereotypical figures in this novel give it an uncharacteristic lack of excitement. Given Brown's best-seller status, however, libraries can expect demand and should buy accordingly. Literary Guild main selection; Doubleday Book Club selection. Andrea Lee Shuey, Dallas P.L.

Kirkus Reviews

Mega-selling Brown ("Exclusive", 1996, etc.) returns, this time with a tale of murder, mayhem, and the battle of the sexes set in sleazy, swampy, sweaty New Orleans.

Burke Basile is a rare commodity in present-day New Orleans—an honest cop—and when his partner (and closest friend) Kevin Stuart dies during an investigation, his life falls apart. In rapid succession, he leaves his wife Barbara (with whom he's never really been in love), quits his job at the NOPD, and vows to seek revenge on the man he blames for Kevin's death: prominent defense attorney/crime-lord Pinkie Duvall. Basile decides that the surest way to get at Pinkie, who's probably the best connected, most protected hard-core criminal in the Big Easy, is through his beautiful wife Remy, whom Pinkie rescued from a life of squalor and poverty and transformed into his own private plaything. But behind the facade, Remy has a mind of her own and a reason for tolerating her husband: As long as she's with him, she can care for the only person she's ever loved, her younger sister Flarra. After a crazy hoax—involving a child molester named Gregory who owes Basile a favor—Basile ends up in hiding with Remy, whom he's kidnapped, at his secluded, rustic cottage. Meanwhile, back in the city, Pinkie and his stooge Wayne Bardo are on a rampage, determined to find Basile and Remy and, now that Remy's been "tainted" by her association—even against her will—with another man, to kill them both. In isolation, Basile and Remy find that they have a lot more in common than a hatred of Pinkie, and by the time the situation comes to its inevitable conclusion, plenty of heads have rolled.

No surprises here, but Brown's readers will find this Mardi Gras extravaganza more than satisfying.