Death on the Bayou (BJ Gleeson – Private Investigator Book 2) by Tom Lubben

After solving a major string of bizarre murders in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, BJ Gleeson now stumbles over another brutal crime while attending a writers’ conference in New Orleans. This complex and troubled man uses his prior experience to point toward the solution to a series of brutal deaths of women, discovered in the swamps of New Orleans just after the disastrous arrival of Hurricane Katrina. ***** BJ Gleeson is walking along a water bed, one year after Hurricane Katrina savaged New Orleans. He has arrived in the Big Easy to give a keynote address at a national mystery writers’ conference. He was asked to speak the prior year, but the conference had to be rescheduled. His positive experiences with a string of brutal murders in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey had developed a small amount of notoriety for this amateur detective. He was just doing some general exploring when he noticed a commotion at the side of the water. Police and emergency trucks arrived to retrieve some bodies. As he moved toward the action, he noticed a naked woman being dragged up from the shoreline. She was naked from the waist up and her body had been badly mangled. As she was pulled up by the emergency crew, an elderly black woman bystander covered her mouth and called out “It’s the Wookie, at it again!” As the crew moves the body away, BJ is introduced to a rather foxy Lieutenant Detective who will be helping him as he moved forward to investigate this woman and several others who appear to have been brutally executed by either a swamp monster or a different kind of smooth operator. Watch as BJ uses his newfound skills to point toward the solution to a number of vicious and bloody bodies that are uncovered. With the help of his new friend, Karen, he negotiates a tricky path through Bourbon Street and into the depths of the Bijou.