Review: "The Marauders" by Tom Cooper

This is the modern day story of how an oil spill can change the lives a small community. The Barataria area is a very small community in Louisiana along Barataria. The livelihood of most of the residents depends on the shrimping industry and when the devastation of the spill starts poisoning the water and all the animals in it, hard times hit all and they struggle to make ends meet. There are a plethora of characters dwelling in the Barataria: the Toup Brothers, who have a thriving marijuana business; Lindquist, a one armed shrimper who is positive there is buried treasure around the swamp; Wes, a teenager who works for his father and is still grieving the loss of his mother during Katina; Cosgrove, a drifter who ends up in the Barataria doing community service for public drunkenness and Grimes, who works for the oil company and is tasked with getting the residents to sell out as cheaply as possible. All their worlds collide and the chaos abounds.

I really enjoyed the book. The storyline is exciting and fast moving. The author interjects laugh out loud humor into situations that normally tend to be depressing. I loved the way each chapter is dedicated to a different character and the story is advanced by going between each. This style kept me turning pages until the end. My only complaint was the conclusion seemed anticlimactic to me. I was expecting all ends to be neatly tied up and they weren’t.

I do recommend this book. It was a fun story that kept me on the edge of my seat till the very end. Who knows, maybe there will be a sequel and my questions will be answered.