This book was definitely an apt sequel to Low Country Boil. The author continued to develop the main characters and introduced new ones as well. In fact, so many new ones, that at first it took a while to keep them straight. But as the story develops, I began to see the similarities among subsets of the characters and the differences as well. A very entertaining read. The jacket cover alludes to the fact that this is part of a trilogy; so I must pick up the final installment and see how everything is finally resolved. ( )

OUISIANA BURN begins when Karen Chancy, a DEA agent and Sam's lover in LOWCOUNTRY BOIL, seduces him to return to the Gulf Coast to help her investigate Thornton Hunnycut, the judge at Sam's trial. Hunnycut, now a United States senator, is on the short list for vice presidential candidate. ( )