Books like Muscle for the Wing

This is an early novel from Daniel Woodrell, the second in his Louisiana Bayou trilogy featuring St. Bruno detective, Rene Shade. In the parish of St. Bruno the local citizenry exists in an uneasy alliance with a gaggle of small-time mobsters who are headed by a local boss named Auguste Beaurain. A trio of ex-cons, members of a prison gang named The Wing, move in with intentions of taking over the town's action. They begin by knocking over a high stakes poker game that is protected by Beaurain. In the process, they kill a cop who was playing in the game, rather than guarding it as he was supposed to do.The surviving players and the mobsters are naturally upset and so are the cops. Even though the dead man was at least slightly bent, he was one of their own, and they can't sit idly by and let the punks get away with this. The mayor, who is in Beaurain's pocket, orders Rene Shade to team up with one of the local mob figures to go after the interlopers. What follows is a delicious tale of crime, corruption, sex and betrayal. Woodrell creates a great cast of characters and places them in a deftly-drawn setting. Atmosphere is a strong character in this book, and as a reader you can virtually feel yourself walking the dusty streets of St. Bruno and slamming beers with Rene Shade.This book is not quite on a level with some of Woodrell's later work like Tomato Red and Winter's Bone, but fans of Woodrell will not want to miss it, and for that matter, neither will most other fans of crime fiction. 3.5 stars for me.