This novel of violence and racial strife set in New Orleans is full of social and physical contrasts. Comiski, a newspaper reporter, descends into an underworld of corrupt policemen, narcotics dealers and black militants in an attempt to unravel a mysterious grave-robbing and find some meaning in his own life. Powerful and compelling. (Originally published in hardcover by Houghton Mifflin) St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "Grim, gripping, violent and practically impossible to put down." Publisher's Weekly: "The scene is unglamorous New Orleans - decay, dirt, garbage... smell, every kind of filth, human and animal, in a brief, well-written novel of hopeless degradations that has a unique impact." Library Journal: "A short- fast-paced and absorbing novel... that probes deeply into the texture of the contemporary South, and entertains from first page to last."