Black Orchid, Culver Bill

Cops experience an adrenaline rush that compares only to a combat soldiers. Their camaraderie with prosecutors in the face of senseless, in-your-face destruction of life is like combat soldiers, too. The difference: a soldier is out in a few years. For cops, this is a lifestyle. The adrenaline flow is addicting; so is their responsibility over life and death. But these obsessions invade their downtime and their family life. They build fortresses to protect themselves from the pain and disgust of their daily lives, walls that they cant allow even loved ones to penetrate.

New Orleans homicide cop Nick Saladino used to be an idealist. But exposure to the citys underbelly has left him jaded and cynical. He substitutes nightlife and alcohol for a home life with his wife and children, eroding their love and leading to inevitable personal consequences. His close friend and drinking buddy, Assistant D.A. Steve Chaisson, never had a love life before taking up with the woman of his dreams: educated, gorgeous, sexy, loving Julie Landry. But Steve senses that keeping her in his life would be like caging a beautiful exotic animal. And how could his lifestyle satisfy her? How could he fit into the prominent social circles where she travels? Who is going to make the sacrifice of a lifetime here?

When Nick becomes aware of a serial killer buried deep in the workings of the citys criminal justice system-someone with ties to many prominent citizens-the two friends must bind together to ferret out the killer without alerting the citys powerful politicians who can stop their investigation and their careers.

Bill Culver is an Assistant Parish Attorney for the Parish of Plaquemines, the southernmost parish in the State of Louisiana, having retired from the Louisiana Department of Justice, Office of the Attorney General with nineteen years of service as an Assistant Attorney General in the Litigation Division. He has tried approximately three hundred jury trials in state and federal, civil and criminal courts in Louisiana and Texas. He was an Assistant District Attorney and Division Chief in New Orleans for almost a decade, where he prosecuted every type of violent and white-collar crime, including numerous capital murder cases.