Cat-Eyed Trouble — Robert Skinner

Miles from Angola State Penitentiary, the body of a New Orleans social worker has washed up on the riverbank behind Audubon Park. Lottie Sonnier would have been just another homicide victim if she hadn't been a long-ago lover of nightclub owner Wesley Farrell. With a personal stake in the case, Farrell is sent on a violent tour through the New Orleans underworld, sweating bullets as he follows the smoke and blood trail of two killers--and a maze of suspects with twice as many motives.

Both roads lead Farrell to the same inevitable fate: the perfumed trap of Stella Bascomb, "The Cat-Eyed Woman"--a sinuous feline with a seductive grin, venom-tipped claws, and a myriad of secrets. Wise in the ways of life and death, well-worn in the ways of men and sex, her role in Farrell's case extends far beyond the sweltering nightlife of the Quarter, deep into Farrell's troubled past. And with the bitter truth of Lottie's death hidden safely in the dark, Farrell's future looks just as bleak as he discovers that the only lasting love is between a man and his .45.