A Civil Death — Joyce H. Corrington

In this third of the New Orleans Mystery novels, assistant DA Denise Lemoyne, product of a distinguished and wealthy New Orleans family, is engaged to reporter Wes Colvin, a “redneck” from the northern part of Louisiana. But she is warned by her beloved godmother Madeline St. Juste that her own marriage to a New Orleans outsider, René St. Juste, hasn’t worked and is about to end in divorce. When Denise finds Madeline shot dead in her Uptown home, Rene becomes the obvious suspect. Denise believes in René, but proving his innocence becomes deadly.