Hell or High Water

May 21, 2012
Post-Katrina New Orleans provides the vivid backdrop for this uneven first novel, the first in a new crime thriller series from Castro (The Truth Book: A Memoir). In 2008, Times-Picayune reporter Nola Céspedes, who’s eager to leave lifestyle fluff pieces behind, takes on the unenviable challenge of reporting on sex offenders still living off the grid after the devastating hurricane. Interviewing potentially dangerous rapists and child molesters isn’t how Nola, who was raised in poverty by her Cuban-born single mother, thought she’d start writing features, but a story is a story. The more involved Nola becomes, to the detriment of her personal life, the more convinced she is that the recent disappearance of 25-year-old tourist Amber Waybridge from the French Quarter is connected to the men she’s investigating. Nola’s obsession with the Waybridge case—and the possible perpetrators—deepens with ominous results. Nola’s gritty appeal compensates only in part for a plot with too many holes. Agent: Mitchell Waters, Curtis Brown.

June 1, 2012

In Castro's first novel, the city of New Orleans plays a leading role along with the human characters. Set post-Katrina, the story recounts the devastation that still reigns as Nola Cespedes, a rookie reporter at the Times-Picayune, drives around pursuing her first big story. She is interviewing sex offenders who have served their time to see if they are "cured"--not the easiest topic for Nola to cut her teeth on. The search for a missing tourist catches her attention and causes Nola to pursue the truth as she meets some truly depraved men. VERDICT Readers who enjoy psychological thrillers will find this a fascinating look into an intriguing city. Nola is a feisty character chasing her own demons while ferreting out facts about child abuse, recidivism, and the mystery surrounding an innocent girl who goes missing while visiting the Big Easy.--Robin Nesbitt, Columbus Metropolitan Lib., OH

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 1, 2012
Reading this suspense novel is like being handed a plate of appetizers and realizing you like them all, and that every single taste, even the bitter and hot ones, enhances the others. There's New Orleans, both tourist-style and historical. Post-Katrina New Orleans, where a wealthy St. Charles Avenue denizen is capable of saying he suffered terrible damage, since some of his pear tree's branches were ripped off. And the New Orleans perfect for disappearing acts, both voluntary and criminal. The central crime is the kidnapping of a college girl from a packed restaurant. The nerve center for the book is the features section of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, where heroine Nola Cespedes churns out entertainment pieces and yearns for an actual news story. Her editor assigns her to an in-depth feature on the rehabilitation of sex offenders. As Nola (her Cuban single mother thought the name would give her daughter roots) interviews victims and offenders, she realizes that her story is evolving into an investigation of the college girl's disappearance and probable fate. Most of the book follows Nola on her interviews. It's amazing how gripping, without seeming at all contrived, these interviews are, both for moving the plot along and for revealing what goes on in sociopaths' minds. Exquisite New Orleans background, intriguing newsroom politics and atmosphere, a flawed but plucky heroine, and skillfully paced suspense make this a stay up way past your bedtime read.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)

July 15, 2012
Salvaging lives in post-Katrina New Orleans is no picnic. Nola Cespedes is fed up with the puff pieces she's assigned at the Times-Picayune. So when she's given a shot at a major feature story--how well do rehabilitated sex offenders do when released back into the community?--she goes all-out, even nudging her friend Calinda over in the district attorney's office for unpublicized details concerning the recent rape and mutilation of a young tourist. Her choice of which serial rapists to interview is as dangerous as her choice of one-night stands. Nola is so driven, argumentative and protectively secretive about her upbringing in the tawdry Desire Projects that her gay housemate Uri suggests therapy. But she's too busy preparing for a wedding and meeting her mother's female lover for the first time. Her stress escalates when another young girl goes missing, and she becomes even more promiscuous, more argumentative, more out of control and more worried about one of her interviewees, a former vice principal who seems overly interested in the young girl she's mentoring and the female students playing in the school courtyard across from his apartment. Nola's final attempt to deal with the sordidness surrounding her brings death and a start at reclaiming her own past. Castro's first mystery is fierce and intense, with both harrowing depictions of New Orleans after Katrina and psychological mayhem for its troubled heroine, who crawls under your skin and lingers there long after you've finished reading. A sequel is in the works.

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