He moved the shotgun up to his shoulder. 
        For an instant LaStanza saw Lizette's face. 
       So this is how it ends, on a muddy road with sweat in my eyes and she's on the other side of the world. 
       A gendarme would go to her hotel to tell her.  Mason would drag his feet up the steps to knock on his parents' door to tell his mother that her last son was gone. 
      For an instant LaStanza saw his brother's face smiling at him. 
      No!  He blinked it away and fixed the sights of his magnum square on the chest of the big man and cocked the hammer.  It sounded loud. 
     He could feel man's eyes staring at him as he squeezed the trigger slowly, raising the iridescent red sights to the man's head.  His hand wavered and he locked his right elbow, his left hand steadying his grip and reminded himself he'd never missed before . . . 
 

Mr. De Noux teaches mystery writing at Tulane University College in New Orleans and is the founding editor of two fiction magazines, Mystery Street and New Orleans Stories.  Besides his four previous LaStanza novels (Grim Reaper, The Big Kiss, Blue Orleans and Crescent City Kills), Mr. De Noux is the author of the true-crime thriller, Specific Intent (A main selection of the Doubleday Book Club).  His short stories have appeared in magazines and anthologies in the U.S., Canada, England, Scotland, Germany, Italy, Denmark and Sweden. 

Mr. De Noux lives with his wife, Debra Gray De Noux, in suburban New Orleans.