The Burying Field

Danny Chaisson #2

by Kenneth Abel

A small town in St. Tammany's Parish, just north of New Orleans, is home to a slave burying ground, so long forgotten that it doesn't appear on any maps. When a group of white teenagers appropriate "the burying field" for after-hours drinking, racial tensions in the area begin to rise. One night the drunken party turns violent, and the town explodes. Danny is sent to St. Tammany by a wealthy real estate developer to protect his interest in a valuable piece of property and finds himself on the wrong side of a bitter struggle over land, power, and tradition. Here, memories run deep and even the past can't stay buried for long in the rich bayou soil. As the disquiet spreads and more bodies surface, only Danny's determination to dig up the region's bloody history can stop a cycle of fear and hatred that seems to be as old as the land itself.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction

352 pages, Paperback

First published May 6, 2002

About the author

Pseudonym of Sergei Lobanov-Rostovsky.
Sergei Lobanov-Rostovsky has taught at Kenyon since 1993. He teaches courses on Shakespeare, Renaissance poetry, film, and fiction writing. His research centers on the politics of spectacle in early modern drama, and he has also published a series of crime novels under the pseudonym Kenneth Abel. In 2001, he received the Junior Trustee Award for Teaching Excellence.
He lives in Columbus, Ohio.

Series:
* Danny Chaisson

Reviews

[Saleh MoonWalker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Onvan : The Burying Field (Danny Chaisson, #2) - Nevisande : Kenneth Abel - ISBN : 451208536 - ISBN13 : 9780451208538 - Dar 352 Safhe - Saal e Chap : 2002

[Marianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting story.

[Rebecca Huenink · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh

[Amy Wochos · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story was fairly interesting but the repeated use of racial epithets was distracting.

[Sean Harding · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I am confusing this author with someone else - I am not sure who that someone else is - anyway this was not a book that ever grabbed me and was pretty forgettable.

[Steven Houchin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent story about racial tension, murder, and violence in Louisiana. This book was hard to put down once I started reading.

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

New Orleans lawyer Danny Chaisson is contacted by a weathy real estate developer to help with a problem in St. Tammany parish that is quickly getting out of control. The real estate company had hoped to begin building a high-end shopping center and expensive housing on a tract of land the company had purchased several years prior but a recent incident on the land has brought the entire project to a halt. A slave burying ground, not marked on any maps of the area but well-known by the local residents of St. Tammany parish, has become a hangout for a group of white teens on Friday nights. During a night of heavy drinking the boys attack an elderly black man who lived near the cemetery. Caryl Jackson had tried on many occasions to make the boys leave and to stop vandalizing the headstones but on this night they hit him with a shovel and threw a piece of headstone at him, hitting him in the head. As Caryl lies in a coma at the hospital Danny Chaisson must find a way to keep any of the blame from falling on his client. Danny quickly becomes embroiled in the local racial tensions and a good-old-boy sheriff who seems reluctant to bring 4 white boys to trial for attacking a black man. The leader of the 4 boys, Randy, is the star quarterback of the highschool football team and the son of one of the area's high ranking KKK members. When one of the boys, Bobby, is found murdered, the sheriff quickly arrests Caryl's grandson for the killing. In a town teeming with racial unrest Danny begins to feel that his allegiance should not lie with his client but with the Jackson family. As more bodies begin to pile up a dark, sinister secret from 20 years ago will put many more lives in danger, including that of Danny himself.

This is a book that has been lingering on my TBR for quite a few years and I am so glad that I finally got to it. What a suspenseful ride it was. The characters are well developed, the good ones and the bad ones alike, and I really pulled for Danny to bring the truth to light. My only quibble with the whole book is that the evil characters are almost just too evil to be believable. It is hard to imagine that people can go through life with so much hate in their hearts towards other human beings. I don't think this author has written many books but I will certainly be searching them out.

[Kayeb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked his characters.....even as they do fit sterrotypes. There is truly more dignity presented for the "downtrodden" than the folks with power... Jabril, a sidekick, is a humorous addition and I'd end up laughing ....very little else in this story was laughable.


When four white teenagers desecrate an old slave burying ground, racial tensions explode and Danny Chaisson finds himself on the wrong side of a bitter struggle over land, power, and memory in a small Louisiana town. Hired by a wealthy real estate developer to protect his interest in a valuable piece of property, Danny discovers that even the past can't stay buried for long in the rich soil of the bayou country. As the violence spreads and more bodies surface, only Danny's determination to dig up this region's bloody past can stop a cycle of fear and hatred that seems as old as the land itself.

[Kirk Morrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Danny Chaisson returns after the success of "Cold Steel Rain" in this latest adventure in which the humid air and sleazy dealing of New Orleans languidly comes off the page. Now that Abel has developed some characters which return here the writing is a little more formulaic but if you enjoyed first book you'll probably like this one too.

[Leigh]

I bought this book not because it's my genre of choice--it's decidely not--but because the man behind the pseudonym was my professor for one of the most brilliant college English courses I've taken. I have no idea what his crime novels are like, but we'll find out.

[Mary Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book for a dollar, and it's one of my favorite books! I want to read more by this author.

[Annet · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember enjoying reading this southern crime/legal novel. Good story.