
Part of Series
New Orleans’s toughest female cop tackles her very first Mardi Gras Now that she’s back on the force and her work with the FBI is over, Maureen Coughlin should have a quieter life. Until Mardi Gras rolls around, that is. New Orleans’s biggest and most infamous party, Mardi Gras may be fun for the revelers but it’s hell for the NOPD, who try to keep the peace on streets jam-packed with drunken paradegoers and the thousands of tourists pouring into the city to join the action. With all that chaos, the city becomes a breeding ground for crimes of all shapes and sizes. Maureen’s Mardi Gras night starts with a bang when a man in pink zebra-print tights—and nothing else—runs past and throws himself onto the hood of a moving car. It only gets worse when she hears gunshots over the noise of the crowd. In the midst of the revelry, Maureen and her fellow cops must stabilize the shooting victims and hunt down the shooter, all while grappling with massive crowds, a camera crew intent on capturing the investigation for their YouTube channel, an incompetent on-duty detective, and race relations in a city more likely to mistrust cops than ever. It’s going to be one very long night for Maureen. With Can the Devil Catch Fire?, Bill Loehfelm returns with another gripping installment in his “edgy, dangerous, but pulsing with life” (Booklist) Maureen Coughlin series.
Author

Praise for the Maureen Coughlin series: “Not only has Loehfelm created the most compelling, complex patrol cop in the genre—part take-no-prisoners badass, part too-sensitive-for-the street rookie—he has also re-energized New Orleans as a setting for the best in crime fiction, going well beyond the clichés … —edgy, dangerous, but pulsing with life. Maureen Coughlin is as good as it gets.” - BOOKLIST “After being warned about falling in love with the power of the job, [Maureen Coughlin] finds herself wrestling with ethical issues that fictional cops, especially fictional female ones, rarely talk about, leaving that stuff to real-life cops—and smart guys like Bill Loehfelm.” —The New York Times. "Our heroine has both a strong will and a finely tuned moral compass… Loehfelm has created a wonderfully flawed heroine in Coughlin… [Loehfelm’s] love for New Orleans is evident in his descriptions, from the greasy spoon the cops favor for gumbo to the rollicking frat bars of the French Quarter. Dialogue doesn't get much snappier, and the complicated plot ... is deftly handled. This series just keeps getting better." —Kirkus Bill is the author of seven novels, most recently, THE DEVIL'S MUSE, the new Maureen Coughlin novel, from Sarah Crichton Books/FSG. Bill's other novels are the stand-alone thrillers, FRESH KILLS (2008), and BLOODROOT (2009). Loehfelm lives in New Orleans with his wife, the writer AC Lambeth, where in addition to writing he plays drums in a band and practices yoga, both with mixed results.