Customer Reviews

Louisiana Fever (Andy Broussard/Kit Franklyn Mysteries)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
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Donaldson's mysteries are unique among the modern genre because he does not rely on the standard recipes such as: (1) Man meets woman, (2) man and woman fuss awhile, and (3) then man and woman jump into bed. He avoids the unnecessarily foul mouth language that many current authors use for shock value. His novels are of appropriate length for his plots; unlike some authors, he does not stretch a short story plot into an 800 page novel. His novels all feature two likeable and human characters: Andy Broussard, the rotund medical examiner for the city of New Orleans who is also a gourmet; and Kit Franklyn, a young criminal psychologist. They are all set in the New Orleans area, and Donaldson's details for this colorful city are authentic, for he got his doctorate from Tulane University. The details of his novels are well researched. In LOUISANA FEVER, Andy Broussard and Kit fight different, but equally dangerous, enemies. Andy is endangered by a deadly Ebola-like virus that is carried by a very small enemy. Enemies who are, arguably, human threaten Kit and her lover's life. Donaldson creates a character here who is especially despicable; you won't be able to wait until this guy gets what he deserves.

Ebola-type fever gains a handhold in the City of Lights. The first victim is a rose-bearing admirer of Kit Franklyn, and the expert diagnostician is Andy Broussard. This is my first outing with the duo I have heard so much about. (...) Andy is a treat. He’s not a conventional hero—a mite too heavy, too old, and too curmudgeonly. He wins us with his strength, humor, and doggedness.

The true villain of the piece will chill. He is patient, resourceful and completely focused. The author does a wonderful job of describing near misses by the villain while the characters are blissfully unaware of their brushes with death. The gradual discovery of what is killing these victims raises the suspense level and contributes to fast page turning. The New Orleans descriptions are done with the eye of a native; no bland touristy snapshots intrude.

The autopsy scenes are quite intense (read before eating). The plot has some extraneous genealogy that I found tiresome. (...) However, it’s a good, fast, interesting read, and I look forward to reading more about Andy & Kit.

In this installment of the Kit Franklin/Andy Broussard Mystery Series, Andy's hash is in the deep-fat fryer and it's up to Kit to save him. The only problem is that Kit's been kidnaped.

Add to that the deepening mysteries surrounding Kit's origins, romance trouble and a deadly virus, and you get a rich mystery steeped in medical examiner lore and true human feelings.

I appreciate the author's no-nonsense writing style and his quirky, but not over-the-top, cast of characters. Of late, the New Orleans Mystery has become a cliche, riddled with parades, politics, French Quarter dining and Bourbon Street debauchery. Donaldson eschews the gimmicks and serves up sensible, well-written stories using New Orleans, a city he obviously loves, almost as a character. Donaldson's mysteries feel like real life (albeit a life I wouldn't want to live) and his characters feel like people who live there, instead of tourists.

Donaldson seems to have stopped writing the Broussard/Franklin mysteries (he's now writing medical thrillers as Don Donaldson) so you can be sad that it's all over or be thrilled that this is a series you can read, start to finish, without having to wait for some slow-poke writer to release the next installment. Give it a try...you'll like it.

I truly love the Franklyn/Broussard series. One reason is because Donaldson does not "dumb down" the technical aspect of the books in regard to Andy's work (coroner for New Orleans). The other reason is because, as a reader of this series from the beginning, I have seen the relationship between Andy and Kit grow and develop with each passing book. And also, I have gotten to know a little bit more about the characters with each book. I can hardly wait until he writes a new one. I highly recommend this series if interested in intelligent mysteries.

Kit Franklin receives an invitation to meet a mysterious admirer at Grandma O's Restaurant. She is curious because the unknown suitor has been sending roses to her for three straight days. When Kit arrives at the restaurant, she is greeted by a sixtyish stranger who speaks her name and then promptly collapses. The man later dies in a hospital of unknown causes. Then Kit disappears and the authorities suspect she is a kidnap victim. On one level this book is about greed and the harm caused by families trying too hard to bury secrets from the past. There are just enough strands to the story to make it interesting but not too confusing.

"Louisiana Fever" is the second mystery-thriller I have read in D.J. Donaldson's Andy Broussard/Kit Franklyn series. Andy is a wonderful character. An aging, overweight gourmand, he believes that a good meal with fine wine is better than sex, but prefers his work to either. Broussard is Orleans' Parish Chief Medical Examiner, and not only a distinguished professional, but a superb detective as well. Dr. Kit Franklyn, so far, has proven to be a less interesting figure. She is a criminal psychologist and was the county's first suicide-research investigator. She also detects.

A mystery man has sent Kit a long-stemmed yellow rose for three successive days, always leaving the flower on her porch, where she finds it when she comes home from work. On the third evening, she discovers a note attached to the flower, asking her to meet the sender at Grandma O's Restaurant for lunch the following day. Smiling, she expects her boyfriend, Teddy La Biche, is behind this romantic gesture. Who else? When she enters the restaurant the following afternoon at 1:00 PM, the lunch crowd has thinned and there are only a few stragglers left. Teddy is nowhere in sight. Seated in the rear, an aging white-haired man, dressed in jeans and a khaki shirt, seems to recognize her. He stands to greet her, saying her name, and then collapses on the floor. He dies almost immediately, seemingly from a heart attack. Kit has no idea who he is. However, a photograph of Kit as a schoolgirl is discovered in his wallet.

Within twenty-four hours two more corpses are found, and Chief Broussard begins to see a horrifying connection in all three deaths. A technician, who assisted Andy on the first case, the mysterious heart attack victim who expired in Grandma' O's, accidentally cut her skin through her protective glove during the autopsy. She falls ill with what turns out to be a lethal Ebola type virus - the same one which killed the others. No one knows what the name or the source is. The potential death toll of a viral epidemic centered in New Orleans is chilling.

Adding to the suspense, Kit goes missing, kidnapped, while searching for clues to the identity of the man with the yellow roses. The hunt for the source of the virus, and the search for Kit, will take the reader all over New Orleans, from the docks to the ultimate, violent confrontation deep in the bayous. The folks who people the storyline are good, especially the ones with a touch of Creole, or more, in their blood. And the villain is an exceptionally bad dude, a psychopath, who is calm, focused and deliberate, even under duress - which makes him appear all the more evil. He, and Broussard are by far the best characters. And the analytic work and dialogue that go on during the autopsies are fascinating.

This is a good book, however, I found some of the author's solutions too facile, too contrived. Overall, "Louisiana Fever" does provide a chilling read for the mystery lover.
JANA