Shelter from the Storm

The FOURTH sly adventure in the Tubby Dubonnet Series, Tony Dunbar's witty yet hard-boiled foodie-noir mysteries.“Nothing… will have prepared you for Dunbar’s uniquely laid-back approach to natural disaster… Just enough nefarious plotting to punch up the drolly understated tableaux till you can’t help laughing, and just enough menace to make you feel you aren’t really missing anything by picking Tubby over the special-effects spectaculars at the local flick.” -Kirkus Reviews (starred review)“By far the best of a very good collection.” -Book Page“Slick prose, upbeat characters, and the particular wonders of the French Quarter will commend this to any Skip Langdon or David Robicheaux fan.” -Library JournalTHE SEAMIER SIDE OF THE CRESCENT CITY...To out-of-town kingpin Willie LaRue, Mardi Gras seems the perfect time for a New Orleans heist – nobody, but nobody will be thinking about a single other thing. Parties, parades, chaos, alcohol – who could be concerned about a little thing like a bank job? Indeed, all might have gone well except for an out-of-season frog-flogger that threatens to flood the French Quarter – something even Hurricane Katrina couldn't do.Next thing you know the survivors – thieves and revelers alike – find themselves marooned together. As the LaRue gang plans its watery escape, raffish lawyer Tubby Dubonnet is obliged to take time out from his customary eating and loafing to thwart their murderous intentions. The body count rises as the tempest subsides, and Tubby finds himself fighting not only for his life, but (it seems to him) the very city itself. A wry, compelling tale of The City That Care Forgot.“By showing the damage that several days of hard rain could cause to the city’s fragile ecosystem, Dunbar makes the reader really care about its fate. He does the same for Tubby, a lazy, corner-cutting, slightly shabby, occasionally reckless but totally decent man.” -Chicago Tribune