Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    The Marauders: A Novel
    Unavailable
    The Marauders: A Novel
    Unavailable
    The Marauders: A Novel
    Audiobook10 hours

    The Marauders: A Novel

    Written by Tom Cooper

    Narrated by P.J. Ochlan

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    When the BP oil spill devastates the Gulf coast, those who made a living by shrimping find themselves in dire straits. For the oddballs and lowlifes who inhabit the sleepy, working class bayou town of Jeannette,  these desperate circumstances serve as the catalyst that pushes them to enact whatever risky schemes they can dream up to reverse their fortunes. At the center of it all is Gus Lindquist, a pill-addicted, one armed treasure hunter obsessed with finding the lost treasure of pirate Jean Lafitte. His quest brings him into contact with a wide array of memorable characters, ranging from a couple of small time criminal potheads prone to hysterical banter, to the smooth-talking oil company middleman out to bamboozle his own mother, to some drug smuggling psychopath twins, to a young man estranged from his father since his mother died in Hurricane Katrina. As the story progresses, these characters find themselves on a collision course with each other, and as the tension and action ramp up, it becomes clear that not all of them will survive these events.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateFeb 3, 2015
    ISBN9780553546330
    Unavailable
    The Marauders: A Novel
    Author

    Tom Cooper

    After some years of bashing out stories and editing copy for newspapers in both England and Australia, Tom Cooper decided to turn his hand to writing a book. His inspiration? It was Ireland itself – happy scene of many teenage and adult holidays alike. When Tom decided to explore even further by bike he couldn't find a guidebook he liked, so decided to write one that he hoped would help, and inspire, cyclists to enjoy touring in Ireland as much as he does.

    Related to The Marauders

    Related audiobooks

    Thrillers For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Film

      Mar 9, 2022

      Film
      3 min read

    • Article

      Book Reviews

      Jul 11, 2023

      Andzani is an emotionally distant accountant on a Grindr binge, with an unresolved attachment to someone from his past. For him, home has always been a site of anxiety. Andzani’s community of Mbambamencisi becomes a shadow in his Cape Town life that

      4 min read

    • Article

      Dust & grit

      Feb 28, 2021

      Dust & grit
      2 min read

    • Article

      Spellbinding Reads

      Nov 13, 2020

      Mickey Starr imports and sells expensive cars. But these vehicles, some of them copies of rare cars, are used to bring large quantities of drugs to the UK from Europe. Then one night on the ferry things go wrong. Clive Johnson, a customs official, is

      3 min read

    • Article

      This Weekend

      May 18, 2020

      Now more than ever you have the perfect excuse to stay indoors, so take advantage of your isolation and catch up on your burgeoning list in Netflix… From the comics by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez comes the story of three siblings and their mother,

      5 min read

    • Article

      International Books

      Oct 13, 2019

      Ever heard of the US Camel Corps? Me neither. The short-lived experiment (1855-1864) saw camels introduced into the US Army because they could bear enormous weights. (Turns out they had downsides, too.) Lurie, a young outlaw, falls in with the Turks

      4 min read

    • Article

      Book CLUB

      Dec 29, 2021

      Book CLUB
      1 min read

    • Article

      It’s Showtime!

      Feb 19, 2023

      Have you been ripped off, short-changed, swindled or scammed? Never fear because Aotearoa’s favourite consumer-rights fighters are back for another year of sticking up for the underdog. Pippa Wetzell and Haydn Jones, along with their investigative te

      1 min read

    • Article

      Stories Of Corruption, Loss And Redemption

      Oct 13, 2023

      Breaking the Bombers: How the hunt for Pagad created a crack police unit by Mark Shaw (Jonathan Ball, R320) Remember Pagad, People Against Gangsterism and Drugs? A grass-roots organisation based in Cape Town and the Cape flats, it emerged in the mid-

      2 min read

    • Article

      Pick Of The Week

      Apr 18, 2024

      Pick Of The Week
      1 min read

    • Article

      A Brief Caribbean Reading List

      Feb 5, 2018

      Among the string of islands known as the Lesser Antilles lies St. Lucia, famous for the picturesque twin volcanic peaks—Gros Piton and Petit Piton—that rise sharply from the sea. Beyond the beaches and lush rainforests that draw tourists are the simp

      3 min read

    • Article

      From Wild Mustangs To Reimagined Housing, Check Out These Can't-miss Podcasts

      Nov 17, 2023

      Looking for dinner conversation starters this Thanksgiving? The NPR One team is here to help with podcast recommendations from across public media.

      3 min read

    • Article

      A Thrill A Second

      Aug 25, 2023

      Minutes after departing from Honolulu, Hawaii, one engine of Flight 1421 catches fire, causing the pilots to lose all control of the aircraft. There’s only one option open to them: an emergency landing at sea. Miraculously, they land the plane in one

      3 min read

    • Article

      Kind People, Vegan Food, And A Bit Of Murder

      Feb 4, 2022

      by Shafiq Morton (Bookstorm, R320) First published in 2014, this second edition has been updated with new chapters to mark the 30th anniversary of Sooliman’s founding of the Gift of the Givers. The organisation first made its name with the speed and

      2 min read

    • Article

      It’s Showtime!

      May 30, 2021

      Burnt out from the guilt of not knowing how to help his queer community, transgender activist Caz Davis – played by the enormously talented Elz Carrad – returns to the remote dairy farming community he grew up in. A decade after he skipped town, he h

      1 min read

    • Article

      Better Books

      Nov 12, 2020

      Wendy Holden, $29.99 As the royal governess, Marion Crawford played a major role in shaping the childhood of Queen Elizabeth II, however her own story is largely unknown. Marion ‘Crawfie’ Crawford was a progressive young working-class woman who, as r

      2 min read

    • Article

      Don’t Miss!

      Oct 5, 2020

      Based on Australian writer Tim Winton’s 2001 novel, is this love story set against the backdrop of the West Australian coastline. The story centres on Georgie (Kelly Macdonald), who is trapped in a loveless marriage with fisherman, Jim (David Wenham)

      1 min read

    • Article

      Best Books

      Dec 14, 2021

      Best Books
      1 min read

    • Article

      Bookshelf

      Mar 15, 2021

      You can actually feel and smell all of Newfoundland in Catherine Bush’s nail-biter novel Blaze Island. Though the isle in her book is fictional, it’s wholly inspired by the partridge berries, roasting eider and rotting kelp of The Rock. Grab a scratc

      5 min read

    • Article

      Previews

      Nov 10, 2019

      Previews
      3 min read

    • Article

      Just The Ticket!

      Oct 3, 2021

      Just The Ticket!
      1 min read

    • Article

      Book CLUB

      Nov 16, 2021

      Book CLUB
      1 min read

    • Article

      Generation Wealth

      May 10, 2018

      Generation Wealth
      2 min read

    • Article

      THE PAROCHINAL Fantastic Australian Television Fantasy in Bloom and Tidelands

      May 5, 2019

      For much of Australia’s screen history, genre fare has been ghettoised. On the big screen, horror, science fiction, action and the odd pure fantasy have been largely relegated to the ‘Ozploitation’ rubric – see: Razorback (Russell Mulcahy, 1984), Mad

      9 min read

    • Article

      Dead But Not Buried

      Nov 15, 2020

      Dead But Not Buried
      2 min read

    • Article

      Shipwrecks And Reality Checks: The Films Setting Out To Skewer The Rich

      Aug 23, 2022

      At the end of March 2020, the billionaire David Geffen posted images from the Grenadines of Rising Sun, his 454ft, $400m superyacht, accompanied by a message reassuring the world that he was “avoiding the virus” and “hoping everybody is staying safe”

      3 min read

    • Article

      It’s Showtime!

      Jun 7, 2020

      It’s Showtime!
      2 min read

    • Article

      It’s Showtime!

      Jun 7, 2020

      It’s Showtime!
      2 min read

    Reviews for The Marauders

    4/5

    113 ratings43 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      An interesting romp around the bayous of Louisiana - shrimpers, pot farmers, cops, pot-heads, drunks, treasure hunters, general ne'er-do-wells... it's everything you'd imagine a story set in and around New Orleans might be. But the promise of these characters is never quite fleshed out and the collision course they're all on is rather anti-climactic in the end. I was hoping for something a bit more, well, ROMP-like - and instead, things somewhat peter out. Still, there are some unexpected moments of emotional impact at the end and the characters/writing are delightful enough that it is by no means an unpleasant read.
    • 4/5
      Cooper has written an engaging novel about the desperation of fishermen and other Louisianans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill. It isn't pretty but the characters are well drawn; more than a few are people I wanted to see resolve their problems. .
    • 4/5
      This story takes place in the Gulf Coast swamplands of Louisiana, and features a one armed, drug addicted shrimp boat captain with an obsession with finding the pirate Jean Lafittes treasure. A corporate BP scumbag trying to con bayou residents into accepting a pittance settlement post Katrina, two prisoners on work release, a teenager dealing with his shrimper father while grieving the hurricane related death of his mother, and last but not least, twin brothers whose cultivate and deal marijuana, and aren't afraid to use violence to protect their business. When treasure hunter Lindquist runs afoul of the Troup brothers, events are set into motion which lead to a violent conclusion. Author Tom Cooper richly describes bayou life post Katrina. The story is fast paced, plausible, and has a satisfying conclusion.
    • 4/5
      This novel portrays life in a small (fictional) south Louisiana town, not yet recovered from the devastation of Katrina, now struck with the ravages of the BP oil spill. Jeanette is a shrimping town, and the shrimpers are barely hanging on. Not only is shrimp scarce, but no one wants to eat Gulf shrimp due to fears of chemical contamination. There are lots of characters, oddball and otherwise, but the novel centers on Wes Trench, a young man who blames his father for the death of his mother in Katrina and who is now struggling with whether to follow in his father's footsteps in the shrimp fishing industry, and Gus Lindquist, a one-armed shrimper who hopes to discover the fabled lost treasure of the pirate Jean Lafitte. The problem is that in searching for the treasure in the deep bayous and cheniers, he keeps getting closer and closer to the clandestine marijuana crop of the threatening Toup twins, who don't want any interference with their activities. Two small-time ex-cons from New Orleans, ostensibly in Jeanette to help with the cleanup, are also seeking a fabled treasure--not pirate treasure, but the Toups' crop. Then there's the BP "front man", originally from Jeanette, but now assigned the task of getting the shrimpers (including his own mother) to waive their legal rights against BP.I enjoyed this story of a way of life in jeopardy. I've seen it compared to works by Carl Hiassen and Elmore Leonard. Maybe, but in my view, although there are some oddball characters (accompanied by a fairly good dose of humor), this is much more serious.3 1/2 stars
    • 3/5
      I have mixed feelings about this book. It's entertaining enough and definitely captures the day to day struggle of life in the depressed, small town bayou - especially after the back to back effects of Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill. However, I thought thee characters were a bit too formulaic and cliche - the one armed shrimper who is obsessed with finding pirate treasure, the abusive father with a son who is stuck following the same career path because he sees no other option, the criminal duo looking to steal their fortune, the stupid twin brothers - one with a hot and impulsive temper - "secretly" growing MJ, and the insurance guy who left the bayou, but comes back to claim his vengeance. While the writing is sufficient to make you curious what happens, the wrap-up of the stories is either more cliche or non-existent (Grimes). Having grown up in a different area of the country that had similar gritty real-life characters, I appreciate Cooper's ability to capture the truth of these lifestyles, it just didn't have to be with such caricatures and predictability.This was a (late received) Early Reviewers copy.
    • 5/5
      I think Louisiana is one of those places that gets into your blood and never quite lets go. This novel is an example of what that does to people.There are seven men, all raised in the Barataria region of Louisiana, who have prominent roles in this book. Are they all marauders? I would say that all but one are and that one comes out the best. There are the Toup brothers, Reginald and Victor, identical twins who are famous for the marijuana they raise out in the swamp. There's Lindquist, a fisherman who lost one arm while trawling for shrimp. He still trawls but his obsession is finding the treasure of Jean Lafitte, the pirate who held sway in the area in the early 19th century. There is Wes Trench, son, grandson and greatgrandson of fishermen, who envisions spending his life on the water just as his forebears did. Since the BP oil spill in 2010 the fishing has been poor and the market even worse. Cosgrove and Hanson are two drifters who have been in many of the contiguous states but are back in LA and meet while doing community service work. Finally, Brady Grimes thought he had gotten away from the Barataria by going to work for BP in New York City. Now he is back on behalf of BP trying to get signatures on releases for damages sustained as a result of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.These seven men interact for several months out among the small islands and waterways of the Barataria. When that time is over some are dead and some are changed but all still have the Barataria in their blood.There is a love-hate relationship that plays out in this book and here are two passages that exemplify that:From p 289The state of Louisiana, Wes's father often remarked, would forever have egg on its face. Always had, always would. No place in the country crookeder, according to him. What else could you expect, an outpost improvised and jury-rigged by outlaws and gypsies out of the swamp? A place which, in its fledgling years, was tossed back and forth between countries like a bastard child? Look at the evidence. State representatives caught with federal money in their freezers and prostitutes in their beds. Gubernatorial candidates ending up in prison. Federal Emergency money spent on swimming pools and sports cars and palomino ponies. And the oil companies: God, the fucking oil companies.From p. 299For better or worse, the Barataria was his home. Whatever that meant. Home was the peaty odor of Spanish moss in the first spring rain. Home was the briny sweetness of fresh oysters thirty seconds out of the water. The termite swarms of early May. The cacophony of swamp frogs in the summer. The lucsts in the day. The crickets at night. The lashing five-minute thunderstorms of late July. The sugarcane trucks rumbling through town in the autumn. The carnival giddiness of mardi Gras. The blessing of the fleet. The petit bateaux clustered in the bay. The pinprick points of their pilot lamps like yuletide lights on the horizon. The strange green glow, supernaturally vivid, of cypress trees in spring gloaming. The earthy smell of crawfish boils. The pecan pralines and boudin and gumbo. The alligators and herons and redfish and shrimp. The Cajun voices, briny and gnarled. The old wrinkled faces as strange as thumbprints.Can't you just feel and smell and taste that? Great writing.
    • 4/5
      When I started reading the first few pages, I didn't think I would like this book, since I like a terse writing style and Tom Cooper writes in a description style. But once I got used to his style, this turned out to be a great book. I really got involved with the all characters and even though there isn't really one main character, unless you count the swamp, it was easy to follow all the characters and how their stories interacted. The coda did seem to drag on, but the author was trying to sum up what happened to the most of the characters. He left one character's story line hanging, so I assume that will be in the followup to this book, which I will gladly read.
    • 5/5
      The Marauders is a close study of a small community past the point of devastation after Katrina and an oil spill that extinguished any hope of ever re-building. That said, the lives under scrutiny reflect differently the light that shines on them, though all seem to have a tinge of desperation, and some already drowned and done. Arguably the most likable characters, the ones that I found myself rooting for in the end, are Wes and Lindquist, and maybe Cosgrove, but even the despicable Toup twins and the BP guy, Grimes, have their moments that can make the heart ache, if you will. All that within the framework of the daily toil of shrimping, a pirate treasure hunt, wildlife rescue mission, and of course, a drug dispute... I liked especially that Lindquist's demise was left unknown (I can see him living it up somewhere tropical, still with his metal detector...), and though foreshadowed, the campaign Grimes would raise against his employer never took place in the time frame of the novel. All in all, The Marauders is a page turner, not necessarily because a lot happens, but just because the hope for the end of desperation never dies as the reader is drawn into the quixotic mission of the one-armed mad man, the much anticipated turning point of the young man who has to build his own shrimping boat, and the idiotic misadventures of two ex-cons.Thanks to LibraryThing and the publisher for a free copy of the novel for my honest review.
    • 4/5
      Received this book from the Early Reviewers program.This was a fun novel of a picaresque group of locals in the Louisiana bayou outside of New Orleans; a well-written story about shrimpers, treasure hunters and dope dealers. Cooper did a nice job of telling the separate stories of several different groups of characters and slowing weaving them together. The characters orbit the same Louisiana bay, but their orbits grow tighter and tighter until everyone collides in the end. This book is full of rich dialogue and crazy characters. The short chapters and changing character emphasis in each makes this a compelling read. I highly recommend it for the Louisiana local or those fans of southern grit fiction.
    • 4/5
      When I read a description of The Marauders by Tom Cooper, I thought it sounded like the kind of story that Carl Hiaasen writes with lots of quirky characters in crazy situations. I am a big Hiaasen fan so I wanted to read the book. I also saw it on a list of the Best Mysteries of 2015 or somesuch and I read lots of mysteries so, again I thought, that's my kind of book. Well, in my opinion, it is neither a mystery or a Hiaasen romp. However, it is a very good book. There are a host of quirky, interesting characters and humor but it struck me as more a coming of age story. Set in the Baratria of Louisiana post-Katrina and post-BP oil spill, Tom Cooper's debut is well-written and enjoyably readable. (Review based on complimentary Advance Reader copy.)
    • 4/5
      It has been said by other reviewers that it takes a fair bit of time before the reader becomes fully immersed in the plot of Tom Cooper's novel, "The Marauders" and I tend to agree with this statement. Unlike some novels, which draw the reader into the plot almost immediately, Cooper's book is a character-driven piece which strives to establish its Southern context by portraying a wide-variety of characters which serve to reflect the geographical climate of the Louisiana Gulf Coast. Little insight is offered with the assertion that if an author chooses to write a novel that is centered almost entirely upon his or her characters, he or she needs to ensure that the majority of the characters are fleshed out and well-developed in order to ensure that the reader will be able to connect with one or more of the author's literary constructs; such a statement is almost offensive in its obviousness. Yet, this statement is important because it provides the basis for both what I liked about "The Marauders" and what I didn't like about it.Cooper is certainly able to create well-rounded characters; each chapter focuses on one or two characters from the town of Jeanette, whose lives are somehow affected by the oil spill. The author's technique of having a chapter dedicated to a character has its perks, but it also has its drawbacks as well. The structure of the book enables Cooper to offer the reader deeper insight into more characters than is typically found in a novel; rather than one or two characters being the focus of the book, "The Marauders" has six or seven people who are given equal emphasis by the narrator. The ensemble of characters is effective in that it provides a wider-range of individuals for readers to connect to and it ensures that each character has an equal amount of development. Yet, this approach also serves as somewhat of a hindrance; the jumping to and from different characters disrupts the narration's fluidity and creates, at times, a feeling of being entirely severed from the events of the book. A reader needs to be grounded, typically with one central character, but "The Marauders" does not follow this approach. Instead, an event which has plagued the city of Jeanette (the BP oil spill) serves as the catalyst from which the reader is brought into the novel's plot. A character-driven novel requires its readers to connect to one of the characters is has established, otherwise the entire book fails to offer anything other than headaches and heartaches as its readers trudge through its plot and narration. Despite the multiple characters presented to the reader, I connected to none of them, which made reading "The Marauders" a rather dull experience. That isn't to say that the writing is bad; I found the diction of the novel to be clear, concise, and easy to follow. The problem that I had was that the book jumps from character to character, none of whom I found interesting or relatable. I had a difficult time grounding myself within the novel; the setting is foreign to me, the characters are foreign to me, and the central crisis (an oil spill) is entirely foreign to me. Unable to connect to any element of the book, I found that I had to force myself to finish reading it, which is not the response I wish to have when I read a novel.Despite not enjoying "The Marauders", I would sincerely recommend it to other readers. It is no fault of the author that I was unable to connect with the plot or characters of the book; I simply do not have any frame of reference which allows me to connect to any element of the novel. With that said, it is likely that many other readers can, and will, connect to the events and characters of the book; it just happens that I do not. The writing is clear, the selection of characters is varied, and the book itself provides an accessible insight into the cultural climate of the Louisianan Gulf Coast. Perhaps after I have travelled south, and discovered the many wonders and pleasures of the Gulf Coast, will I find this book more enjoyable. 3.5/5
    • 2/5
      Kinda humorous, hard to follow, great characters.
    • 5/5
      The characters in this book live in the post-Katrina, post-BP oil spill town of Jeanette, Louisiana. In fact, Katrina and the oil spill seem characters themselves. The main human characters are Gus Linquist, Wes Trench, Reginald and Victor Toup, Barry Grimes. Cosgrove, and Hanson.Much of the story takes place in the town and the surrounding Barataria swamp where the shrimp trawlers toil at their back breaking work every night for very little return. The oil company and the EPA say the seafood is safe, but no one wants to buy gulf seafood and the sealife does not look quite right to the shrimpers.Residents struggle. Should they continue to try to pay their bills by killing themselves slowly with their own shrimp trawlers or should they sell out and work for BP to lay booms and try to clear oil? Should they take Barry up on his settlement offers? Should they give it all up and move away?Gus and Wes are the most sympathetic characters. Gus, at 45, has always dreamed of finding Lafitte's pirate treasure in the swamp while he must continue to trawl for shrimp in order to live. He lost an arm in a winch accident and has been popping Oxycontin from a Pez dispenser for years. He takes on Wes, 17, as help when his former crewman takes a job with the BP cleanup crews. Wes lost his mother in Katrina and can no longer work for his angry, guilt-ridden father. All Wes has ever wanted is to build his own boat and start his own shrimp business. He genuinely likes Gus, with his stupid jokes and treasure obsession.Barry grew up in Jeanette and could not get out fast enough. He resents that his supervisors have forced him to work the people of his hometown. He slogs through each day, trying to get people to sign settlement papers before the real story about the oil damage gets out. He ends each day with whiskey and a phone call to report in to his boss. And he avoids his mother, whose signature is among those he is tasked to procure.Cosgrove came to Jeanette to bury his father, gets drunk and ends up in jail. As a parolee with community service, her meets Hanson, a petty criminal with ideas to make money.Reginald and Victor Toup are the local drug lords. Their island in the swamp is home to their booby-trap-protected marijuana farm. They have left bodies in the swamp and have customers throughout the state. They do not take kindly to the crazy one-armed man and his metal detector getting too close to their island.The daily lives of these characters, their inevitable crossings and the resulting outcomes of their decisions make for a very entertaining novel.
    • 4/5
      Read the description on the book flap, and you might be expecting a rollicking kind of romp that more or less copies Carl Hiaasen and substitutes Louisiana for Florida. But while there's some humor, Tom Cooper's tone is more serious and his characters interact in ways that are less comical than desperate and sometimes bitter. That said, this is an enjoyable novel, with not only strong points to make about the effects of the BP oil disaster on a small bayou fishing town, but a plot that gradually ratchets up the tension until all of the marauders--treasure hunter, marijuana farmers, a venal, small-minded BP employee--converge in the swamps of Barataria Bay. And the ending is a mix of sad and sweet, with some quick and bloody violence thrown in; it satisfies, without tying everything up in an artificially neat bow.
    • 4/5
      Life is already hard for the shrimpers in the Barataria in Louisiana. Post-Katrina, it is even harder. Especially if you only have one arm and are addicted to pain pills like Lindquist. He and the other characters in Tom Cooper's first novel all have struggles that they are trying to overcome. For most, it is looking for some sort of score (drugs, treasure, a new boat). Throughout this interconnected novel, we follow characters as they deal with life in the bayou. I would compare it favorably to Elmore Leonard or Carl Hiaasen. Cooper has a knack for capturing the place and attitudes of his characters.While I was hoping for a little more action during the resolution, that might have been too much to ask for in this realistic book. Cooper saves it with a fantastic final chapter that captures the essence of the people in the Louisiana area.
    • 5/5
      I loved this book! These characters are the real deal. Each one is dragging around the results of past decisions like an anchor. They are all trying the best they know how, but unfortunately for them, they have no idea how to get themselves out of the rut they're in. Perfect examples of "Keep doin' what you're doin', and you'll keep gettin' what you're gettin'". Reading is it like watching the girl in the horror movie creeping into a dark basement and you're screaming "NOOOOOO! Don't go there!" But they do. They just can't seem to stop themselves. Even the one guy who left town as soon as he could, is sent back to do the oil company's dirty work. There just doesn't seem to be any escaping your roots...with one possible exception at the end. Very well written and engaging.
    • 4/5
      I read this book over the past four or five days. It's a quick read, and I totally get the comparison to Elmore Leonard (whose books I also enjoy). This book is set in the Louisiana bayou right after the BP oil spill, and Cooper really gives you a feel for the place. I think that's what I actually liked best about the book -- the swamp was almost a character. Like lots of Leonard books, there's not really a "hero." All of the characters are flawed, and some just downright awful, but you can't help getting caught up in their stories. Sort of like you can't help slowing down to look at a car wreck. I think this would make a great summer read.. It's entertaining, outlandish and real at the same time, and just plain fun to read.
    • 5/5
      This was a surprisingly great first novel, of misdeeds, miscreants and the incredible character of the the oil-spill soaked Lousiana Bayou. A bit of a man's book (brothers, farther/son, friends), women don't feature but as footnotes, but still, I liked it and had a hard time putting it down, especially near the end. Some of the liveliest and quirkiest characters I have read about in a while. Just pure entertainment and escapism. Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      The Marauders sets it readers down in the backwater bayou town of Jeanette, LA in the wake of the duel tragedies of Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill. The town lives off of its shrimping industry, but the shrimp are too small and hard to find, not to mention likely tainted by the oil washing up on Jeanette's shores. Jeanette, at first glimpse, is home to a pack of the most unlikeable characters you're likely to find in fiction. First, there are the twin Toup brothers, who beat back the steadily encroaching poverty with a bumper crop of marijuana they're growing on a hidden bayou island. Then there is Gus Lindquist, a one-armed especially down on his luck shrimper with a painkiller addiction who is certain that if he just tries long and hard enough he'll find the lost treasure of the pirate Jean Lafitte. Then there's young Wes Trench, whose family has seen tragedy and whose relationship with his shrimp boat captain father is desperately on the rocks. There's Cosgrove and Hanson, too, a couple of petty criminals on the hunt for a treasure of their own. Last but not least is Brady Grimes, a guy who fled his Jeanette home at the first opportunity only to find himself returned to his hometown to wheedle the locals into accepting paltry settlements from BP for their troubles.The Marauders is a fairly fast paced tale of a crowd of characters whose paths cross at the most inopportune moments. Black humor litters Cooper's story of the foibles of hapless Lindquist, as he desperately hunts the treasure that will turn his fortune around but ends up tangled in the Toup brothers' web instead. Cosgrove gets into a bar fight after burying his father that spins his life off in an unexpected direction. Wes Trench and his father part ways after a squabble over ice that is the culmination of months of quiet hostility after the death of Wes's mother, and all of the sudden Wes is thrust into nutty Lindquist's orbit that is headed straight for danger. Brady Grimes, in all his smooth talking, mildly conflicted glory ties the community together with his decidedly unwelcome visits, until even he is taken down a peg by the struggles of his old hometown.I say that the characters are unlikeable at first glimpse, because they don't all stay that way. Sure, maybe the marijauna farming Toup brothers don't have a ton of redeeming qualities. However, by the time readers have spent a couple hundred pages in their presence, most of Cooper's other characters emerge with a few more dimensions than you might expect, and then you, like me, might realize that you're not reading just a ridiculous crime caper about a bunch of greedy fools so much as you are reading a terribly honest and, at last gasp, affecting story of a proud, stubborn, if sometimes desperate, Cajun community that gets back up again as many times as it gets knocked down. The Marauders is the last book that I would have expected to get an emotional reaction out of me as it wound down into its final pages, but let me assure you, somehow it did, and for that reason alone, you can expect The Marauders to be a book that is much more than meets the eye.
    • 5/5
      I so wanted to like this book, ever since I first read about it coming out, then at the bookstore, I saw a number of reviews on the back of the book from authors whose books I have really enjoyed, but then on the front I saw a recommendation from an author who recently has been the kiss of death. The recommendation was from Stephen King whose last to book was dreadful, and who had high praise for two other books I read, that were equally dreadful. But the other author reviews won me over and I bought the book.What an amazing first novel! Two parts Carl Hiaasen one part ken Haruf. A story about oil spills, and two time losers, degenerates, and drug dealers, and oil company pay-off men, and they all come together in the Barataria of southern Louisiana, a world all its own, where the law is barely existent and the people are all at least half crazy.Read this book, you will enjoy it.
    • 4/5
      A novel told from five perspectives that takes place after the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. All the main characters are male. In fact, the presence of women in this book are non existent. Some of the principle players are a man sent by an oil company to buy off local fishermen for their losses, a pair of brothers who have a hidden stash of marijuana plants on a secluded island and a one armed man who makes his living looking for treasure with his metal detector. The characters combine to form a wonderful story of violence and mayhem with a Louisiana flair.
    • 4/5
      Katrina and the BP oil spill have wreaked havoc in Louisiana, and this cast of characters must learn to live and thrive while things are changing around them. Things that have been part of their families for years and years.I felt the characters were interesting and true to the area and times, and the descriptions are very well done, especially of muggy, moist, bug infested Louisiana. A very entertaining read and quick moving. Nice first novel.
    • 5/5
      It kept me in suspense reading well past midnight.
    • 2/5
      Disclosure statement: I received an advance review copy of this book from LibraryThing's Early Reviewers giveaway in exchange for an honest review of the book.I'm not quite sure what to make of this book, which I expected to like -- the premise was promising, I tend to enjoy novels with shifting points of view, and the cover blurbs were impressive (and probably built up my expectations.) And there is a lot to like here: the brisk pace, the clear narrative voice(s), the detailed sense of place, the satsifying final scene. With that said, I had a very hard time getting invested in this novel. I think this lack of investment can be attributed to the fact that, though Cooper constructs his setting with a nuance that is both cynical and empathetic, the characters who populate that setting are not afforded that same nuance, and are mostly just there to make a spectacle of bad behavior for the enjoyment of outside readers. The point of view characters aren't necessarily across-the-board unlikable -- Wes is endearing, and the thief-duo was amusing -- but many of them have so few redeeming qualities that it became difficult to care about the dramatic tensions the novel builds, most of which are concerned with whether these people live or die. There is also some alienation at play in my lack of investment in this book: the point of view characters are 100% male, and the women in the novel seem to exist purely for sex and/or manpain related purposes, which is always a hard hurdle for me to clear as a female reader/viewer/etc. Like, it's not a bad book -- it's well-written and incisive -- but it's probably a better reading experience if you're able to feel like you're part of the intended audience for it.
    • 4/5
      A tale of life in the Barataria. After the oil spill by British Petroleum, a way of life that was centered around the bayous of the Louisiana Gulf Coast is thrown into chaos. Oil slicks, sludge, and even the chemicals used to break up the spill, spoil the life and livelihood of the people of Jeanette, La. Many people pull up stakes in search of greener pastures, but those who stay must find ways to eke out a living until the promise of renewal in the Gulf becomes a reality. Some turn to dishonest means such as the Toup brothers. These identical twins are of a like mind when it comes to making money. Their present scheme involves an out of the way island, lush with the growth of marijuana and the promise of easy cash. Some would turn to the ethereal promise of treasure hunting, like Gus Lidquist, submerging himself in the legends of Jean Lafitte and his supposed buried treasure that pervade the history of the Barataria. Some turn to the cause of their problems seeking relief, as Barry Grimes. A one time child of the bayous, he returns to his roots carrying the hollow promises and quick rewards offered to his hometown folks by his bosses in B.P. Still others like Wes Trench, estranged from his father, but sharing in the hope of continuing to squeeze out a meager living, hoping against hope for a return to normality. Book provided for review by Random House.
    • 5/5
      I enjoyed this book. Very entertaining. Great characters and a good story line. Not only was the author adept at telling a good tale and creating some odd ball, yet realistic, characters, he was also wonderful at setting a time and place. Tom Cooper drew a picture of the bayou with words and he did it so well, one could say they were almost "there". I gave the book four stars and later amended that to four and a half. This is a first novel and it was very well done....so well that I would pick up Mr. Coopers next book. It is fair to say that this story contains a lot of material that one normally finds in this genre but the way he structured his tale was unique. One other thing the author did well, and this is a biggie for me, was incorporate a sense of humor into the book. What happened to the bayou after the BP oil disaster is just that, disastrous, yet, without subtracting from this fact, Mr. Cooper was able to use a bit of humor when constructing his characters and their actions within the story. It is my opinion that often humor is a vehicle with which to impress on others the seriousness of a situation, readers are more likely to engage in one's tale. Well done Tom Cooper. I will be recommending this book to others as I am certain they will enjoy it.
    • 3/5
      The highlights of a hardscrabble town named Barataria on the Louisiana Gulf Coast and the lowlifes that live there. Creole descendants from the Acadians of Canada who moved south before the Louisiana Purchase make their living as watermen seining for shrimp mainly but also other seafood including the occasional alligator.A cast of the usual colorful characters provide impetus to the plot in a wide variety of ways from a deranged metal detector enthusiast searching for gold, a pair of twins with a garden of Marijuana deep in the swamps and a set of low level criminals intent on finding the garden. The straight man is a teenager attempting to find his way in life and knowing that the best way is to follow the traditions, build a Louisiana Skiff and drag for shrimp as his family has done for generations. The BP oil spill plays a large part as well. I had hoped there would be a little leavening of humor ala Elmore Leonard but, alas such was not to be.The interplay of the various denizens of Barataria is written well, the plot sufficiently convoluted to demand your attention and the outcomes satisfactory.
    • 4/5
      This book was entertaining enough. The writing was well done, the descriptive passages brought you into the bayou. There we many characters, but they weren't hard to keep straight and they were interesting and well done. I enjoyed reading it, but for some reason I can't quite figure out I found it hard to pick back up and continue reading. I felt the ending was wrapped up neatly, but not the big coming together of the characters I was expecting. Nothing bad, but nothing particularly memorable for me either.
    • 5/5
      Wow! This is a wonderful debut novel. Tom did a fantastic job writing a story that drew me right in from page one. His characters are so vibrant and I felt as though I knew each one. He brilliantly described the bayous of Louisiana! I grew up in the Nola area during my childhood and went back later in life as an adult. Living through Katrina was something unlike any other life experience... Tom sure stirred up some old feelings and memories in me from that time. His writing is great! I'm so glad I won this book as a ARC though LibraryThing.
    • 3/5
      This book moved a little too slow for me, and I had trouble liking the characters. That said, they were well drawn characters. I think the bayou was the most likeable character of all & I loved the descriptions of it - one of those narratives where you can almost feel the heat and the bugs around you. The aftermath of the oil spill after the aftermath of Katrina is an interesting subject to me and while this book gave me some insight, maybe not as much as I was hoping for .