Love Power by Martha Reed is the first book in the NEW “Crescent City New Orleans” traditional mystery series, coming October 19, 2020.
Disgraced ex-police detective Jane Byrne is on the run. After surviving a brutal excessive force civil lawsuit that scarred her with PTSD, Jane blows into New Orleans’ The Bywater District on her Ducati motorcycle looking for a fresh start. The last thing she expects to find is a hate crime serial killer targeting NOLA’s inclusive LGBTQ community.
Jane’s new landlord, Ken Pascoe is the sole surviving remnant of The WarBirds, a one-hit wonder ‘80’s heavy metal band. Ken, his wife Leslie and Leslie’s Aunt Babette, a mediumistic voodoo queen are living off royalties from “Love Power,” the band’s single stadium anthem mega hit and one of the first music videos produced for MTV.
At Leslie Pascoe’s surprise 50th birthday party we meet Gigi Pascoe, Ken and Leslie’s transgender daughter and Gigi’s two LGBTQ BFF’s. Gigi raises her concern when one of her friends goes missing the day after the party. Her concern turns to fear that NOLA’s queer community is being targeted for hate crime violence when a second friend vanishes.
Dissatisfied with the NOPD force and the local FBI bureau agency responses, Jane and Gigi team up only to discover that their united effort has refocused the serial killer’s white supremacist hate-filled intent on them.
Dru’s Musing:
We meet the heroine who is vulnerable, yet strong in her pursuit of justice when a marginalized group is targeted. The author does a great job in capturing the essence of this story keeping me immersed in all details from the introduction of the characters that have pivotal roles to the search for a missing friend to mischief and mayhem to disruption of societal rules that wreak havoc in this intensifying mystery. I love that the author allows us to see the characters for who they are, not what they are, and their trials and tribulations catered to how well this story unfolded within the pages, keeping me enthralled at what transpired. The mystification of New Orleans is rampant throughout and the author does a great job in keeping this drama alive from beginning to a surprising end.
FTC Full Disclosure – I received a digital ARC of this book from the author