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.

    First the Dead: A Bug Man Novel
    First the Dead: A Bug Man Novel
    First the Dead: A Bug Man Novel
    Ebook315 pages11 hours

    First the Dead: A Bug Man Novel

    By Tim Downs

    4/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    When a national disaster strikes, "first the living" is the rule.

    Unless you're the Bug Man.

    When Hurricane Katrina strikes New Orleans, forensic entomologist Nick Polchak signs up to help with the recovery effort. He is known as the Bug Man for his knowledge of insects and what they can reveal about the dead. The government's mandate is clear—rescue the living first, recover the dead later.

    But something is very wrong in the toxic soup-bowl of post-Katrina New Orleans.

    Someone is using the cover of disaster to kill . . . hiding the victims of murder in the same watery grave as the victims of Katrina.

    It's a tale only the dead can tell. But no one besides the Bug Man is listening.

    " . . . stands out from the pack of CSI-inspired mysteries with its quirky hero and creative handling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster."

    —Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThomas Nelson
    Release dateSep 9, 2008
    ISBN9781418537166
    First the Dead: A Bug Man Novel
    Author

    Tim Downs

    Tim Downs is the author of nine novels including the Christy Award-winning PlagueMaker and the highly acclaimed series of Bug Man novels. Tim lives in North Carolina with his wife Joy. They have three grown children.

    Read more from Tim Downs

    Related to First the Dead

    Related ebooks

    Christian Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Death Of A Sinner

      Oct 17, 2022

      Death Of A Sinner
      6 min read

    • Article

      Parting the Waters

      Dec 29, 2022

      Parting the Waters
      12 min read

    • Article

      The Boatman And The Bear

      May 27, 2022

      The Boatman And The Bear
      9 min read

    • Article

      Streamer Fishin’

      Dec 28, 2021

      Streamer Fishin’
      6 min read

    • Article

      Native Nevada

      Jun 6, 2023

      Native Nevada
      7 min read

    • Article

      Signs of Life

      Dec 27, 2022

      Signs of Life
      3 min read

    • Article

      Rock Hard

      Sep 10, 2020

      Rock Hard
      7 min read

    • Article

      Cruising With The General

      Oct 20, 2021

      Cruising With The General
      6 min read

    • Article

      In Search of Solitude

      Oct 13, 2020

      In Search of Solitude
      3 min read

    • Article

      Rapids Rising

      Mar 1, 2022

      Rapids Rising
      8 min read

    • Article

      My Sea Turtle Story

      Dec 25, 2020

      My Sea Turtle Story
      5 min read

    • Article

      Sometimes The Gods Can Be Cruel

      Oct 27, 2023

      Sometimes The Gods Can Be Cruel
      7 min read

    • Article

      My Sea Turtle Story

      Jun 25, 2019

      My Sea Turtle Story
      5 min read

    • Article

      My Sea Turtle Story

      May 26, 2023

      My Sea Turtle Story
      5 min read

    • Article

      Long Shots

      Dec 31, 2019

      Another season was winding down, and a west wind found me at the top of the dunes, bathed in a chilly golden light. Winter mooring stakes dotted the harbor, and every last boat had been pulled. Nighty-night. I had come for the light and for the clear

      3 min read

    • Article

      Stray Cat Strut

      May 18, 2021

      Stray Cat Strut
      7 min read

    • Article

      L.A. Confidential

      Apr 18, 2023

      L.A. Confidential
      5 min read

    • Article

      First Passage

      Jun 3, 2021

      First Passage
      16 min read

    • Article

      The Drifter

      Apr 1, 2021

      The Drifter
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Spaces In-between

      Jul 15, 2020

      We were just off South Cape when a voice came out of the long-wave radio and announced that Tasmania had closed its borders. Everyone stopped moving. Eyes like plates, jaws dropped to the floor. Coffee mugs suspended mid-flight. The whole catastrophe

      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for First the Dead

    4/5

    35 ratings4 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      This addition to the "Bug Man" series packs an emotional punch. Nick and many, many others respond to the tragedy of Katrina and the horrors that unfolded in New Orleans after the hurricane struck. Working with a group of people called DMORT, a rapid response group that goes to national tragedies to help with the recovery and identification of the dead. DMORT is normally concerned only with the dead but this time they are charged with rescue first, then later they will start to collect the bodies. For Nick this is a huge problem. His main concern is the dead and the bugs that can determine the time of death. When left in the "toxic stew" that is New Orleans all forensic evidence is being destroyed. When Nick finds bodies that are much more advanced than they should be just a day after the hurricane, he believes that someone is using the tragedy to cover up their murders and he is determined to prove it.

      As usual, Nick ignores orders, does his own investigations and gets himself in trouble with the brass. There are a couple of relationships that emerge for Nick, a young homeless boy searching for his father and the DMORT psychiatrist who is charged with the teams mental health. Both have an impact on Nick that make him more human and less "bug like".

      I had a hard time with a lot of the scenes in this one, mostly because the destruction of New Orleans hurt so badly the first time and I wasn't ready to deal with it again. Still, I trusted Downs to handle it well and I was right. Beautifully written it describes the despair and well as the hope that emerged from the tragedy of Katrina. Not an easy feat when dealing with such an emotional topic and one that isn't that far in the past.

      I'll be reading more in this series.
    • 4/5
      Nick Polchak is back! The quirky forensic entymologist from Downs other novels gets sent to New Orleans just before Katrina hits to help DMORT (disaster mortuary operational response team) with the recovery efforts. Nick finds himself at odds with his superiors, who want him to focus on resuing the living before recovering the dead. Nick doesn't have a problem with this in the case of ordinary bodies, but when he spots bodies that he believes to be the victims of foul play he can't help investigating. So not only are readers treated to a great thrill ride as Nick investigates and becomes a target, but also a great interpersonal story as the anti-social Nick becomes involved with a young boy he rescues from the flood waters and a Psyhological counseler assisting DMORT--who is interested in Nick for more than just his thick case file. Fans of thrillers who don't have a sensitive stomach to the details of death and bugs will love this one.
    • 3/5
      The readers always knows who the bad guys are, but you have to read the book to find out how it all ends.
    • 5/5
      A wonderful book, especially for fans of Gus Grissom’s character in the original CSI. Downs, characterized as a Christian author, writes a straight-forward and exciting forensic thriller. Forensic entomologist Nick Polchak is a driven, emotionally distant intellectual, who wears coke bottom bottle glasses and likes to work 20 hours a day. His encyclopedic knowledge of the insect world is balanced by his seeming immunity to the softer side of life, and his near inability to connect emotionally to others. In this, the third book of “the Bug Man” series, Nick stands in as foster father to a boy orphaned by Hurricane Katrina, and in the process gives readers a first-hand view of the first devastating days after that catastrophic storm. Most interesting to me was the author’s afterward, in which he notes that his characters fall victim to the same out-of-control rumors that spread throughout the entire country in those first hectic days after the storm made landfall. In this author’s note, though, Downs sets the record straight about the actual number of deaths in the Superdome, and corrects the record about the NOPD officers who did not report for duty in the aftermath of Katrina (15% as opposed to the rumors of 50%). A terrific read – and it wasn’t until I finished the book that I figured out why the book jacket included the descriptor “Christian” – there is a refreshing absence of the more common four letter profanities in the dialogue. This did not detract from the book’s verisimilitude one bit – each character still spoke in a distinctive “voice” and each was clearly and individually drawn. Highly recommended.

    Book preview

    First the Dead - Tim Downs

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1