Book Review: The Marauders

*I received this copy of The Marauders free from Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest review.

Goodreads: When the BP oil spill devastates the Gulf coast, those who made a living by shrimping find themselves in dire straits. For the oddballs and lowlifes who inhabit the sleepy, working class bayou town of Jeannette,  these desperate circumstances serve as the catalyst that pushes them to enact whatever risky schemes they can dream up to reverse their fortunes. At the center of it all is Gus Lindquist, a pill-addicted, one armed treasure hunter obsessed with finding the lost treasure of pirate Jean Lafitte. His quest brings him into contact with a wide array of memorable characters, ranging from a couple of small time criminal potheads prone to hysterical banter, to the smooth-talking Oil company middleman out to bamboozle his own mother, to some drug smuggling psychopath twins, to a young man estranged from his father since his mother died in Hurricane Katrina. As the story progresses, these characters find themselves on a collision course with each other, and as the tension and action ramp up, it becomes clear that not all of them will survive these events.

My Thoughts: It took me a while to get the characters straight since they didn't seem related in any way at the beginning of the story. As the story progresses  you come to understand that everyone is connected to everyone else in the story whether they know it or not. The one-armed man and the criminal potheads cracked me up which was a nice surprise since I wasn't expecting any humor. The story line with Wes and his father really touched me, I'm sure many families lost loved one's during Katrina in a similar fashion. I went with three stars on this because of the character confusion on my part at the beginning of the story, otherwise, this book is  A wonderful portrayal of what life was like on the Gulf Coast after the devastation caused by Katrina and the BP oil spill.