The Buddy System

New Orleans, 2008. The streets are rife with gang violence. City Hall wants a cleanup. Police are backed into a corner. And detectives Jack Hardy and Early Moore need a bust. Assigned to a highly regarded surveillance unit, they see an opportunity to refurbish their reputations. They call in a favor, recruiting help from drug dealer Lamont Brown.

Lamont agrees to feed Hardy and Early information about drug deals, allowing the detectives to claim multiple high-profile busts and Lamont to rid himself of competition. Everything goes well until Lamont wants his new partners to do some of his dirty work: burying dead bodies and finding jobs for his cousin Jello, a down-on-his-luck contractor.

Blackmailed into compliance, Hardy and Early stumble upon a scheme to bilk the city’s post-Katrina housing reconstruction efforts—still a mess years later—while dodging dirty cops, street thugs, white supremacist hit men, and crooked contractors with a lot to lose.

Then Lamont’s main rival in the drug trade finds out Lamont has been ratting. Lamont calls in Hardy and Early to help him out… or get them out of the way.

Whichever comes first.

… in the manner of Elmore Leonard… enough fights, chases, and homicides to satisfy genre fans… the lean, efficient style keeps this one chugging along nicely.Booklist

Hebert keeps the schemes and double crosses coming relentlessly… he gives this New Orleans take on The Wire a comic edge.Kirkus Reviews