After years of military service— including a harrowing stint in Iraq— Zackery Bowen returned to New Orleans to tend bar and deliver groceries. In the weeks before Hurricane Katrina hit, he met Addie Hall, a pretty and high-spirited bartender. Their improvised, hard-partying during and after the storm represented what so many want to believe is the indomitable spirit of New Orleans. But in October 2006, Bowen leaped from the rooftop bar of a French Quarter hotel. A note in his pocket directed the police to the body of Addie— and to one of the most gruesome crimes in New Orleans' history. How had this popular, handsome father of two done this horrible thing?

In Shake the Devil Off, Ethan Brown presents a haunting depiction of a town still reeling from natural and political disaster. Brown overlays this with the graphic story of what happened to Zackery Bowen, leading to themes that are still getting front-page attention— the brutality of war, and the failure of government to deal with PTSD and suicide among returning veterans.