Cold Steel Rain [Hardcover]

Kenneth Abel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 7, 2000

Kenneth Abel's first mystery, Bait, was hailed by kings of the genre. "One of the finest crime novels I've ever read," said James Lee Burke. "A gripper all the way," praised Elmore Leonard. Robert B. Parker summed it up in a word: "Brilliant!" Now, Abel makes good on the promise of that debut with a mystery set against the murky world of New Orleans politics, where debts may be postponed but not forgotten, and old loyalties can be unexpectedly betrayed.

Danny Chaisson is an up-and-coming prosecutor until his longtime benefactor, a Louisiana political boss, calls in his chit. Chaisson performs as commanded, but resigns from the D.A.'s office to preempt additional collisions of conscience and politics. He stoops to running small-time errands for the politico as a second career, until he narrowly misses being present for a lethal hit at a local restaurant. When it looks like he'll be sacrificed as the fall guy in a complex game of public culpability and political spin, Danny goes on the run. He soon allies himself-first professionally, then romantically-with Mickie Vega, a woman from ATF who's also been set up as a scapegoat. The stakes are high and his odds poor, but Danny has a few tricks left to play before he'll be dealt out.

Combining pitch-perfect dialogue with plot twists reminiscent of L.A. Confidential, Abel has delivered a crime novel tour de force.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Following his well-received debut mystery, Bait, Abel introduces former assistant D.A. Danny Chaisson in a gripping tale of political misdoing and murder set in New Orleans. Now working for a powerful state legislator, Danny is responsible for delivering wads of political payoff money around the New Orleans area. Things start unraveling when five people die in a restaurant shoot-out, two of them Danny's friends. Soon various odd characters get into the act: Jimmy Boudrieux, the corrupt speaker of the Louisiana House of Representatives; his chief legislative aide, Lucas Clay; the New Orleans police; beautiful ATF agent Mickie Vega; Jimmy's daughter, Maura; Danny's ex-wife, Helen; a crooked parish deputy and a crooked land developer. Danny, of course, must sort it all out. While the third-person point-of-view requires readers to deduce characters' loyalties from their statements and actions, Abel cleverly inserts tidbits of information to indicate who is on the good side and who is allied with whom. The novel moves fast, yet it retains an atmospheric aura of lethargy. The New Orleans setting is well integrated into the story; the weather descriptions, the slowness of people's daily activities and the duplicity of many of the characters' actions combine to create a dense miasma of sleaziness. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Danny Chaisson resigned from his job as assistant district attorney three years ago to work as a bagman for New Orleans political boss and state senator Jimmy Boudrieux. Danny is resigned to his fate--his old man worked for Boudrieux, too--but then he inadvertently witnesses the murder of a gun runner by Boudrieux's henchmen. Tying up loose ends, Boudrieux puts out a contract on Danny. Life becomes a dangerous cat-and-mouse game for Danny as he scrambles to stay alive while working to bring Boudrieux down. The first in a proposed series of Chaisson novels is a complex, tightly plotted, moody nail-biter in which very little is stated but all is gradually revealed. The impression Chaisson makes early is not the one readers will take away. In the end, Chaisson will endear himself to Dave Robicheaux fans, who will have no trouble imagining the two melancholy crime busters discussing life over chicory-laced coffee and a couple of beignets some steamy New Orleans morning. Among the best first mysteries to have appeared this year. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Adult; First Edition edition (September 7, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399146628
• ISBN-13: 978-0399146626
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,489,600 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great crime thriller, September 9, 2000

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cold Steel Rain (Hardcover)

In New Orleans, former assistant district attorney Danny Chaisson works as a political gopher for powerful state legislature Jimmy Boudrieux. His latest assignment is to exchange money for weapons at the Lotus Flower restaurant. After completing the deal, the restaurant owners Claude and Phuong Raymond ask Danny to do them a favor. He agrees, but leaves without taking the letter with him. He returns to Lotus Flower only to find five dead people including the owners. Before quietly leaving into the night, Danny anonymously calls 911.

Someone must take the fall for the headline making homicides that has the ATF investigating. Apparently, a political deal turned deadly. Evidence exists pointing the finger at Danny and the employers of the hired goons decide the lackey is the perfect stooge and set him up to take the rap. Surprisingly, Danny, who always follows orders, refuses to sit back to take the hit, but instead he begins his own inquiries to prove his innocence.

COLD STEEL RAIN is an exciting crime thriller that provides intriguing insight into politics, Louisiana style. The story line is taut and fun as Danny tries to regain his self-esteem even as he struggles to find the guilty party(s). The use of flashbacks to present the cast adds to the overall feel of audience involvement. This technique enhances the pace of the plot. As with the non-stop action tale BAIT, Kenneth Abel shows he is more than able to write a gripping crime drama that will beguile readers with its strong cast and powerful theme.

Harriet Klausner

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Just under four stars, July 31, 2003

By 

The Gooch (Temecula, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cold Steel Rain (Paperback)

"Cold Steel Rain" is a gripping thriller that is probably best read on a vacation, or any other period where large blocks of time can be dedicated to finishing the novel within a few days. This novel has so many characters, plots and sub-plots, that if, like me, you occasionally have to put the book down for a few days to deal with real life, by the time you pick it up again it is easy to have forgotten many plot details and characters.

The novel provides an excellent depiction of political corruption in Louisiana, where it appears almost everyone, from the Speaker of the House to local cops, are on the take. One of my favorite political scams as described in the book, involves Jimmy Boudrieux, the Speaker of the Louisiana House of Representatives calling for mandatory gun-safety classes as a requirement of handgun ownership. Seems like a concerned politician worried about the safety of his constituency, right? Turns out one of Boudrieux's political cronies is adding gun training classes as an additional profit center to his gun stores (stores Boudrieux is an investor in).

The primary plot of the novel centers around Danny Chaisson, a former idealistic attorney with the D.A.'s office, who was been reduced to little more than a courier of payoff money for Jimmy Boudrieux. When Danny appears to have lost his usefulness to the Speaker after being a witness to an extremely brutal restaurant murder, it looks like Boudreiuex and his associates may be ready to put Danny out to pasture.

One of the things that Abel does especially well in "Cold Steel Rain" is seamlessly slip in detailed biographies of most major characters in the novel, without letting this information interfere with the flow of the plot. If I had a major criticism of the novel, it would be that I simply thought it was maybe 100 pages or so too long. Whereas the first 2/3rds of the story threw off my regular sleep schedule because I couldn't bear to put the book down no matter how late it got, the final third or so was somewhat of a chore to labor through. A good editing would have improved this novel greatly.

Another small, probably petty, complaint I had with the book was the authors overuse of italics. After awhile, italics were used so often that it almost seemed like an insult to the intelligence of the reader, as if the author didn't think his readers would otherwise understand what points or concepts were important to grasp. Also, when writing the internal dialogue of the novels black characters, the author, who isn't, chose to do so in slang, which I found to be somewhat annoying, and hardly believable. Similarly, I had to cringe when the author, a male, tried to write in the internal voice of the young, female ATF agent as she started to find herself sexually attracted to Danny Chaisson. Note to the author: Simply ending every sentence with "girl" does not make a character sound authentically feminine. Luckily, this is a pretty minor portion of the book.

The author appears to want this novel to work not only as a thriller, but also as a sort of social novel about the struggle of the black underclass. There's a subplot about a renegade community activist who tries to keep the young black men in his community from going down the path of gangs and guns. The author illustrates how cheap, illegal guns sold by white dealers can infiltrate a black neighborhood, while at the same time not taking away the personal responsibility of those who keep these dealers in business by buying and using their product. While occasionally a bit preachy in this area, it was definitely an eye opener.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Amazing Achievement, February 14, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Cold Steel Rain (Hardcover)

It's truly breathtaking how well-written this book is. If G.P. Putnum had put some marketing dollars behind it I have no doubt it would have risen to the New York Times bestsellers list. Incredibly solid. I can't wait to read the new Danny Chaisson thriller. I am ordering it tonight with the gift certificate my brother gave me for Christmas.