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No Second Chances

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

A New Orleans detective’s investigation of a fellow cop’s murder reveals surprises in this mystery from the USA Today–bestselling author of Thrill Kill.

One of Quentin Archer’s fellow officers has been shot dead in broad daylight, in his own squad car. A random cop killing…or something more sinister? With no leads to go on, Archer turns to voodoo queen Solange Cordray for help. But is he prepared to take her advice?
As Archer uncovers some surprising facts about the dead man’s past, there is another murder. With the simmering racial tensions in the city threatening to escalate into outright violence, Archer begins to suspect there’s far more to Officer Leroy’s killing than he’d first supposed. Could it be part of a carefully orchestrated plan of revenge…?

“Even if there seems no room left for the unexpected, Bruns still has one last surprise up his sleeve.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Richly nuanced…Bruns clearly loves New Orleans and pithily inserts details of the city’s com­plex history and culture.”—Publishers Weekly

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      April 24, 2017
      Bruns brings the chaotic frenzy of Mardi Gras to life in his second novel featuring New Orleans homicide detective Quentin Archer (after 2016’s Casting Bones). Spray canisters of Chill, a gas that instantly cools down bottles of wine as well as providing a quick high when inhaled, are found under the bodies of three seemingly random murder victims. The pressure is on Archer and his partner, Josh Levy, to find out what the common denominator is before another person ends up dead. The case meanders along, with false starts and a dearth of clues, until Archer calls on his small collection of friends/informers: Mike, the gregarious bartender; Alexia Chantel, a former pharmacist turned stripper; and Solange Corday, the beautiful psychic and voodoo practitioner with whom Quentin is smitten. What starts out as a search for a serial killer loops into something even bigger, more sinister, and far-reaching. Those expecting some really creepy voodoo will have to settle for a little lackluster black magic. Agent: Jill Marr, Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency.

    • Booklist

      May 15, 2017
      The Chill Thrill Kills. That's what a New Orleans newspaper calls a string of knife murders in the Big Easy. Chill is a spray can of nitroxicetylene, used to cool warm bottled beer and wine in a hurry, found next to each corpse. Why? Homicide detective Quentin Archer has to find out. He gets help from Solange Cordray, a voodoo woman he publicly scoffs at. But when she asks for a can of Chill to hold because there's energy in inanimate things, he's quick to obey. Archer's spooky scenes with her are among the best parts of the book. Another is a lengthy sequence of cops studying videos of tumultuous street scenes, attempting to find somethinganythingthat would lead them to the killer. Sounds prosaic, but Bruns manages to wring remarkable tension out of that scene. Too much time is spent on a subplot about a turf war between cocaine dealers, but thriller readers eager for a taste of something creepy will find what they want here. Go for the voodoo. And the video from that camera mounted on a stick. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

    • Booklist

      March 1, 2018
      This is the third in Bruns' agreeable New Orleans series, each one featuring a police inquiry backgrounded by the raucous goings-on in the Big Easy. This time there is no Dixieland music in the background; instead, there are the sounds of looting and violence that accompany a race riot. Again the star is police officer Quentin Archer, who was forced to flee the Detroit PD after he exposed a drug ring inside the department. His wife was killed, and his cop brothers turned on him. He doesn't dwell on this. Instead, he grapples with a puzzle. A cop, Leroy, has been murdered as racial tensions escalate. A little digging reveals that decades ago Leroy was a security guard who nabbed a couple of thieves. They were never prosecuted. Why not? Then a truck driver was killed when his truck was hijacked. The responding cop was Leroy. Watching Archer struggle to connect these pieces is the fun here, and the well-choreographed gunplay that erupts when he gets close helps, too.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

    • Publisher's Weekly

      January 1, 2018
      At the start of Bruns’s richly nuanced third novel featuring New Orleans homicide detective Quentin Archer (after 2017’s Thrill Kill), Nick Martin, a 29-year-old truck driver, dies in 1992 when he drives off a road to avoid a head-on collision with another semi. The hijackers who arranged this trap steal Martin’s load of 800 cases of cigarettes. Flash forward 25 years to present-day New Orleans. The death of white police officer Johnny Leroy, shot at point-blank range in his squad car by a young black man, fuels racial tensions in the community. The reader knows it’s a revenge killing of some sort. With pressure from the mayor to solve the crime immediately and with no witnesses or clues to go by, Archer accepts the offer of love interest Solange Corday, a psychic and voodoo practitioner, to apply her esoteric skills to the investigation. They eventually un­cover a link between the hijacking and Leroy. Bruns clearly loves New Orleans and pithily inserts details of the city’s com­plex history and culture. Agent: Jill Marr, Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency.

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