Biloxi can best be compared to the old Atlantic City. Peppered with Ma and Pa businesses, and lending itself to the relaxed atmosphere of southern small town living, life changed abruptly after Hurricane Camille. The coastline was devastated and the rebuilding effort suddenly included out of town major casino owners. Construction of casinos inevitably sent property values sky high, leaving those who would not sell, pressured by imported toughs with real estate taxes almost too high to pay.

One of the last holdouts was Cass Perinovich, a shrimper who makes his home on Point Cadet in Biloxi. He is a cantankerous old man who not only incurred the wrath of the developers, but also the town city fathers, local realtors, and the Vietnamese gangs of youths who lived near him.

The story opens as Jack Delmas, a boyhood friend of Cass’ deceased son, is visiting. Jack is a private eye who focuses on insurance fraud investigations. He regards Cass as his second father. While there, Jack gets real samples of the antagonism that Cass has created, as one incident after another threaten their safety.

After returning home, Jack learns the next day that Cass was killed that night when his house exploded. The arson squad calls it an accident but his only heir Sheila retains Jack to discover who murdered Cass.

Since Cass had lots of enemies, there are no lack of suspects as Jack sort of fumbles his way through the investigation. He comes across often as a bewildered bumbler, but that is probably because the most insight that is provided into his character are his occasional introspective thoughts.

The Green-Eyed Hurricane is a strange mixture of writing styles. The scene descriptions of the local area are often vivid with plenty of imagery but ponderous at the same time. The dialogue is terse, sarcastic and certainly not as eloquent as the descriptive passages aspire to be. The result is a choppy read, although interesting.

The resolution of the mystery is predictable although Jack takes a circuitous route to arrive at a point where he is enough of a threat to force the evildoer into making a mistake. The ending is a bit too tidy, and by so being, anti-climatic.

The atmosphere created by the mere placement of the novel on the Gulf Coast makes part of the book very enjoyable; but one is left wishing that the main character was a little better revealed, or put together, and that there was a foreseeable end point in his half-hearted search for meaningful relationships.

--Thea Davis