It's been a brutal year for the rookie New Orleans cop Maureen Coughlin. Her first arrests, her first black eye, and, after a stinging brush with the corrupt heart of her adopted city, her first suspension. As she waits out the suspension, hoping to save her badge, Maureen finds increasingly dark and dangerous ways to pass the time. Justice, she tells herself, is being served. No need for the NOPD to know what she's doing.Maureen believes getting back to the job she loves is worth any sacrifice, any risk, that it's the only thing she really wants. But wearing the badge again means stepping back into the crosshairs of ruthless people who want her out of the way and don't care who else gets caught in the crossfire. Driven by a lead character Megan Abbott calls "a hero with whom we will go anywhere," Let the Devil Out raises the bar for sharp-witted, compelling cop fiction. As The New York Times says of Maureen, "She finds herself wrestling with ethical issues that fictional cops, especially fictional female ones, rarely talk about, leaving that stuff to real-life cops--and smart guys like Bill Loehfelm."

A Southern Indie Bookseller Alliance 2017 Summer OKRA pick!One of Kirkus Review's "11 Thrillers That Will Keep You Awake This Summer"In the thrilling fifth book in the critically acclaimed series that's "edgy, dangerous, but pulsing with life" (Bill Ott, Booklist), a Mardi Gras parade turns deadly.It's Mardi Gras in New Orleans and rookie cop Maureen Coughlin has no idea what she's in for. Her night working the parades begins calmly enough—until a half-naked man careens through the crowd and throws himself onto the hood of an oncoming SUV. As she tries to deal with the incident amid the pulsing chaos of the parade, Maureen hears gunshots. Moments later, with three wounded and a handful of drunken witnesses, Maureen has a full-fledged investigation on her hands. Who was the shooter? Who was he after? Who's the next target? City bigwigs begin pressuring Maureen and her crew for quick answers. And with an amateur camera crew...

It's been a brutal year for the rookie New Orleans cop Maureen Coughlin. Her first arrests, her first black eye, and, after a stinging brush with the corrupt heart of her adopted city, her first suspension. As she waits out the suspension, hoping to save her badge, Maureen finds increasingly dark and dangerous ways to pass the time. Justice, she tells herself, is being served. No need for the NOPD to know what she's doing.Maureen believes getting back to the job she loves is worth any sacrifice, any risk, that it's the only thing she really wants. But wearing the badge again means stepping back into the crosshairs of ruthless people who want her out of the way and don't care who else gets caught in the crossfire. Driven by a lead character Megan Abbott calls "a hero with whom we will go anywhere," Let the Devil Out raises the bar for sharp-witted, compelling cop fiction. As The New York Times says of Maureen, "She finds herself wrestling with ethical...

A gripping third chapter for one of the most unforgettable and compelling heroines in crime fiction"You have a temper, Officer Coughlin, and a propensity for violence . . . You're a bit of a hazard. To others. To yourself."Maureen Coughlin has been a cop in New Orleans for two years, and she likes to think she's gotten the lay of the land—even if she's never discharged her weapon, and even if she's a little spooked by the persistent rumors of a cash bounty on cops. But when a late-night traffic stop goes wrong, the fallout leaves her contending with troubled friends, fraying loyalties, cop-hunting enemies old and new, and an elusive, mysterious, and murderous new nemesis—all while navigating the twists and turns of a city and a police department infected with dysfunction and corruption. Bill Loehfelm, who lives in New Orleans, is a rising star in crime fiction, and in Maureen Coughlin he's found the perfect heroine: complicated,...

When Maureen Coughlin first appeared in The Devil She Knows (2011), the New Orleans Times-Picayune called her "unforgettable" and "the character of the year." Booklist named The Devil She Knows one of 2011's ten best thrillers and declared Maureen "as compelling a character as this reviewer expects to see this year."Now she's back in Bill Loehfelm's new thriller, The Devil in Her Way, and her life has changed in more ways than one: She's starting over in New Orleans as a newly minted member of the police force.Kicking off her final week of field training, Maureen takes a punch from a panicked suspect bursting out of an apartment. Her training officer laughs it off, and the incident even yields a small victory: the cops recover a stash of pot and guns. But out on the street, on the fringes of the action, Maureen sees something sinister transpire between two neighborhood boys that leaves her shaken, and she knows there's more...

An audacious thriller from a major new talentLife isn't panning out for Maureen Coughlin. At twenty-nine, the tough-skinned Staten Island native's only excitement comes from . . . well, not much. A fresh pack of American Spirits, maybe, or a discreet dash of coke before work. If something doesn't change soon, she'll end up a "lifer" at the Narrows, the faux-swank bar where she works one long night after another. But just like the island, the Narrows has its seamy side.After work one night, Maureen walks in on a tryst between her co-worker Dennis and Frank Sebastian, a silver-haired politico. When Sebastian demands her silence, Maureen is more than happy to forget what she's seen—until Dennis turns up dead on the train tracks the next morning. The murder sends Maureen careening out of her stultifying routine and into fast-deepening trouble. Soon she's on the run through the seedy underbelly of the borough, desperate to stop Sebastian before Dennis's fate becomes...

In Fresh Kills, the murder of John Sanders, Sr. on a New York street corner reunites his estranged and abused children, John, Jr. and Julia. While Julia struggles to keep things together on the home front, Junior, unhinged by his father's death, searches for the killer across the bleak, haunted landscape of his Staten Island hometown. Complicating Junior's pursuit are two police detectives: one, a former childhood friend; the other, a veteran cop who might have his own reasons to wish John, Sr. dead. Junior's emotional state crumbles under the pressure coming at him from every side. Bedding his high school sweetheart doesn't exactly simplify the situation. When the opportunity for revenge presents itself, Junior must decide whether he will continue the chain of violence that has nearly destroyed his life, or give in to the possibility of a new beginning. With emotional intensity, crackling dialogue and a heartfelt sense of place and character, Fresh Kills delivers unexpected and profound insights that speak to the soul of its struggling hero, and heralds a breakthrough voice in fiction.