SILVER MEDAL WINNER 2016 GLOBAL E-BOOK AWARDS.
Detective 'Cadillac' Holland left the intelligence community and joined the Louisiana State Patrol to find the answer to his father’s disappearance in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Four years have passed and he hasn’t found the answer. Now his sister wants him to prove that a pit bull is the murder weapon and not the murderer of New Orleans’ most notorious criminal. The dog’s tracks lead to the murder victim’s young son, angry fiancee, and a shady bodyguard. The investigation ultimately turns up Federal investigations into a rap music label and a cache of missing firearms, a dog fighting ring, the blackmailing of a famous actress, and exposes far more things about Cadillac's background than William Avery, NOPD’s Chief of Detectives, ever wanted to know when he assigned the Detective to find a solution to the case which would “reach a conclusion in line with everyone’s perception of justice”.
This is the second book I have read by this author, the first being BLOWBACK a prequel that paves the way for the books that follow. Again we meet Detective “Cadillac” Holland and his team as they have a strange case to deal with.
In the first book Cadillac is called in to help clear up the back log of cases that mounted up after Katrina, and is still on loan and helping. He is called to a case of local rapper Biggie Charles Lynley. The suspect is still in the vehicle with Biggies body. It is an American Pit Bull, rather than have the dog shot Tulip Holland, Cadillac’s sister, asks that he not shoot the dog, as it could hold vital information to an investigation. Well Tulip was not wrong, Biggie is an ex-convict but on his release he managed to set up a music studio. Enquiries lead the team through the life of Biggie and the lives of others around him, it is very obvious that the team are not being told the whole truth.
This story is set 4 years after Hurricane Katrina and once again Hiller incorporates the devastation that she left in her wake into the story. He briefly explores issues in the poorer neighbourhoods and projects, mentioning how insurance companies fail to pay out on policies as well as those not being insured because of financial restraints. For me the inclusion of these details work very well in the main story, it gives something extra as they are peppered throughout, not overbearing but enough, they have been worked very well and not over-used. The main characters are now starting to make themselves known more, they are very memorable and have been well-developed.
There are various elements going on in this book, they expand on details mentioned in Blowback, such as the reason for Cadillac coming back home after his injury in Iraq, the disappearance of his father, the case itself and obviously Katrina. It would be easy to think that there could be some confusion, but there is not. Hiller has a very logical way of telling this story, it makes sense and has a very well laid out style to it. There is no big fan fare of a conclusion, instead it has simply, logically and naturally been brought to a very satisfying conclusion.
