"Ruffin gives the reader a strong and accurate sense of place, and a clear, definitive
story line. The dialogue of his New Orleans street talk is perfect. Add strong plot
and you have a real thriller, a page-turner."
--Robert Winship, author of The Brushlanders, Every Man Also, and Flannery's Crossing
"The conclusion of Pompeii Man is a series of hairpin twists and turns that are unexpected,
shocking, and ultimately satisfying. In addition to an action-filled plot, the book
has a full and interesting cast of characters, richly realized settings that will
resonate with readers, and an in-depth exploration of what can happen when two civilized
people step into a nightmare."
--Jane Hinton in The Commercial Dispatch
ISBN: 0-945083-03-3 (cloth)
0-945083-04-1 (paper)
Listed as an
Outstanding American Novel
in the Dictionary of Literary Biography
Yearbook, 2002.
praise for POMPEII MAN "I have long admired and enjoyed the work of Paul Ruffin, and her, in the form of a solid, page-turning thriller, Pompeii Man, are the qualities that mark his writing -- a strong, clear story line, a deep and accurate sense of place, characters dimensional enough to contain contradictions and to offer surprises, and, above all, a style that moves easily between the lyrical and the satirical, the colloquial and the elegant. Pompeii Man is something special." -- George Garrett author of Death of the Fox, The Magic Striptease, and The King of Babylon Shall Not Come Against You "Demonstrating Paul Ruffin's perfect dialogue, flawless pacing, and interior daring, Pompeii Man is this master storyteller's finest yet, a compelling, white-knuckle read that , like all the best stories, takes you on a trip you didn't expect to take to a place you didn't expect to go, and leaves you breathless at the ride." -- Janet Peery author of Alligator Dance and The River Beyond the World "Paul Ruffin's Pompeii Man reminds me of all those wonderful film noirs of the forties. His New Orleans is steamy and mysterious. This novel is a page-turner, and I couldn't put it down." -- Richard Bausch author of In the Night Season and Good Evening Mr. And Mrs. America and All the Ships at Sea
Set on the Mississippi Coast and in New Orleans, Pompeii Man is the story of the descent of an innocent couple into a hell of fear and violence, a world that neither of them could have imagined in the Big Easy, city of music, good food, and Old South charm. The reader watches in horror as Stafford loses his wife to a terrifying night of assault, rape, and sodomy in the dark heart of New Orleans, manages to get her back home, then loses her again, this time perhaps forever, except for the emergence of a detective who takes a personal interest in the case and driven by his imagination and determination sets off, with librarian Stafford his only back-up, to find the woman and destroy the drug lord and pimp who holds her, a man whose villainy has earned him the street name Satan.
