CRESCENT CITY KILL

The mutual hatred between Det. Skip Langdon and New Orleans Prince of Darkness Earl Jacomine that seethed throughout The Kindness of Strangers (1996) comes to a boil again in this saga of The Juror, a high-toned vigilante who executes criminals the law can't touch and writes principled self-defenses to the police. It's bad enough when The Juror takes down recently acquitted wife-killer Billy Ray Hutchison, but when he goes after the murderer of promising new police superintendent Albert Goodlett (a vengeance just about everybody in town privately applauds), he's clearly on a collision course with Skip. That's fine with Skip, who's convinced The Juror is Jacomine—and fine with Jacomine, who has no higher goal in life than to get revenge on this despised female cop. Caught in the middle are Jacomine's fearful wife Tourmaline; his first wife Rosemarie Owens (recently single again courtesy of The Juror); Rosemarie's crazy son Daniel; Tourmaline's scarcely less crazy son Isaac (a.k.a. The White Monk); Daniel's daughter Lovelace (who first makes her appearance getting kidnapped by her father, before things really get strange); and Dorise Bourgeois, widowed by a shot Skip fired in self-defense. Talented Smith's canvas is extravagantly broad, but this time, at least, bigger isn't better; the epic confrontation between Skip and Jacomine feels suspiciously like Pearl White and the Scarlet Claw. Late-breaking news flash: Jacomine escapes from the apocalyptic conflagration that brings down the rest of the house. Looks like every crook in New Orleans who isn't in with Jacomine will get a bye for at least one more installment.