The site of the War of 1812 Battle of New Orleans is not giving up much in the way of artifacts to archeologist Faye Longchamp and her crew.  When Faye gets an offer to see a neighborhood that was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, she jumps at the chance.  During her tour, a body is found under a pile of rubble, but Faye is pretty sure it isn't another drowning victim.  The pile of junk holding the body down is all wrong for that.

Because of their expertise in archaeology, Faye and her fiancé, Joe Wolf Mantooth, are asked to assist with the murder investigation.  They discover that the victim, Shelly Broussard, a fellow archaeologist who was very active in rescue work after the devastating storm, may have made some enemies.  When someone takes a shot at Faye and Joe, it appears that they are getting too close to the killer, and maybe they have made some enemies of their own.

The story is laced with excerpts from The Floodgates of Hell: The Reminiscences of Colonel J ames McGonohan, 1876.  It effectively integrates the history of the New Orleans levee system with the murder mystery as it unfolds.

Political corruption, bribery, murder, greed, Native American spirituality, and voodoo are all interwoven into the complex plot of this new Faye Longchamp archaeological mystery. I felt that the main characters weren't quite as well rounded as they could have been. Since this appears to be about the fifth in the series, the book probably should have been read in sequence with the earlier books in the series, though it is a stand-alone novel with plenty of action, suspense, and a satisfying ending.