In Law & Desire, the second book in the acclaimed Bobby Delery crime fiction series, Michael Allen Zell continues to peel back the mean streets of New Orleans. The parallel stories of recently-returned Bobby Delery's quest to find out what happened to his family and a city councilman's unorthodox way of fundraising end up meeting sharply in a climax that touches on race, history, and corruption. A rapidly changing yet tradition-bound New Orleans is the fertile setting for vibrant characters including a shady used car dealer, suburban activist, hit men, neighborhood "mayor," and bike gang. Not all will get out alive.
Like its predecessor (Run Baby Run), Michael Allen Zell's Law & Desire is a fast moving, gut-punching celebration of life in New Orleans that shimmies way down low along the outer fringe of the almighty tourism grid. The usual neo-noir themes drive the action--private dicks, degenerate losers, imperfect love and plain old bad luck--but are cast through the funky filter of New Orleans' underground culture and sharpened to a fine point by the author's keen ear for street poetry. Law & Desire is the latest home-run from an exhilarating new voice of the genre.
--Louis Maistros, author of The Sound of Building Coffins and Anti-Requiem: New Orleans Stories.
Praise for Run Baby Run
Though New Orleans has always been a remarkable setting, few authors can mine its rich veins and still tell a fine tale. Michael Allen Zell does both.
-- David Fulmer, author of the Storyville mysteries
Run Baby Run shows the excellent writing and story-telling ability of Michael Allen Zell. In this intriguing New Orleans-based crime drama, the city is a free-standing character that is central to the plot. I particularly liked Zell's use of metaphor, deftly mixed with the realism of contemporary political ideology and pop culture. A most enjoyable read.
--Roland S. Jefferson, author of The School on 103rd Street, Damaged Goods, and One Night Stand