Louisiana Fever (Broussard & Franklyn, #5) (Andy Broussard/Kit Franklyn Mysteries)

by D J Donaldson

[Kait ✨]

To be honest, when Rachelia and I were approached to review this book, I said “yes” after only skimming the synopsis—mostly because I read “mystery” and was sold. While I’m actually not usually a mystery reader, I’ve been wanting to branch out lately in terms of my reading habits. Suffice to say, I was intrigued by Louisiana Fever, but had no idea what to expect in terms of writing style or conventions.

As I mentioned above, I had never read a detective novel before, and Louisiana Fever is actually the fifth novel in a series. It was not difficult to jump into the Andy Broussard/Kit Franklyn mysteries in the middle. While the two characters obviously had history, there was still character development and growth, which I loved. I was attached to the characters to the point where I was getting stressed out at certain high-tension points: it was absolutely a page-turner. To me, mysteries and thrillers have to have that attention-grabbing quality.

When I went to write up my review and check some of the publication details, I was surprised to note that it was actually originally published in 1996. I would never have guessed that! The writing is definitely not dated almost 20 years later, which is a pretty good indicator of how great a book this is!

I also have this weird fascination with disease and illness, so the focus on a virus as part of the mystery plot was really fun for me. There was a lot of detail in terms of medical developments and I enjoyed that a lot. (As someone who can geek out a bit in terms of morbid diseases, but has no clue about medicine at all, these sections were fascinating.) It’s kind of like a mix between Grey’s Anatomy and The Mentalist… which happen to be two of my favourite TV shows.

While I felt that the book started out strongly, it petered out a bit over time. The plot started to feel a bit clichéd and corny. I wasn’t completely happy with the ending, either—I found it a little implausible at times and I didn’t love how some of the characters reacted to some situations. Overall, though, I really enjoyed Louisiana Fever, and would absolutely consider reading some of the previous instalments in the series.