"It's Jennings, man." He gave me a friendly, almost collegial clap on the shoulder. "Welcome to the dirty south."

This was an interesting and deeply sad story. A small town, population about 10,000, has had a horrible habit of losing some of its most vulnerable members - women who are struggling on the fringes of their town - but losing them to murder.

All of these women left family behind - mothers, siblings and sometimes even children. And the mystery around all their deaths, the author's reasons to tie them together but also to tie them to certain people who maybe probably did it. It was an interesting read full of heartache but also anger. How have these not been solved?! I'm anxious to see the show they made out the book. ( )

Brown does not answer the question posed by his title, but, after reading his book, it becomes clear why the question of who killed the Jeff Davis 8 may be unanswerable. While he is not able to provide a definitive answer as to who killed the women, he is able to expose the seemingly endless corruption that mired down the investigation.

Brown's book has a journalistic tone, and he thankfully steers away from salacious detail. Instead, he shares the fruits of his exhaustive investigations, which include reviewing thousands of pages of police records and conducting extensive interviews. The book is a distillation of these efforts and is a cogent argument for possible police involvement in the murders themselves.

If you do not like to keep up with a large cast of characters, this book may not be for you. Jennings, Louisiana is small, but there are a lot of parties involved, and they have the enmeshment that will be familiar to people from small towns. Brown provides very helpful guides to aid the reader in knowing who's who. I often flipped to them, but Brown also does an admirable job of describing the players well, which makes it easier to keep people straight. There is also a timeline that helps provide context.

The book reads like an exposé, uncovering scandals in the Jennings police department and in higher levels of government. He assembles his case carefully but does not include excess details-- that said, there is still a lot of detail, because it's the nature of this particular case. ( )

Certainly very thorough, but not super engaging. Also - most of the crimes remain unsolved so you can draw conclusions but there are no answers. Also - just too many people to keep track of effectively. I kind of stopped trying to follow about half way through. ( )

good but so depressing I never want to keep reading it...maybe I'll revisit when I'm in a better head-space. ( )

I had heard a lot about this book and heard a lot about the Jeff Davis 8. The Jeff Davis 8 consisted of group of eight women who had been involved in the sex and drug trade in the heart of Jefferson Davis County in Louisiana. All of the eight had been murdered between 2005 and 2008. Ethan Brown lives in New Orleans, and he spent a great deal of time in Jefferson Davis County completing extensive research into these crimes. The real travesty is that, to this day, these crimes have not been solved. During Brown's research he finds reams of information on law enforcement staff in the County, and in what appears to be their involvement in the drug and prostitution trade. Brown does a good job in the book of presenting the story. Everything that he has written has been personally researched through arrest records, interviews with people peripheral to the case, and thorough examination of newspaper articles, land titles and internet searches. I found the book a bit of a tough slog though, as there was almost too much fact, and the back stories are revealed in bits and pieces throughout the book. I prefer to read an expose in chronological order, and with one point-of-view at a time. What Brown has exposed in this book though is chilling and frightening. How can this kind of lawlessness go on for so long, and no outside agency be called in to deal with these very serious allegations? In some ways this expose makes it a bit easier for me to understand our very own unsolved disappearances and murders along "The Highway of Tears”. Society's most vulnerable people are truly the forgotten ones in this world. ( )

"Murder in the Bayou," by Ethan Brown tells the horrible story of the murder of eight "sex workers" in small-town Louisiana over the course of just four years. Eight related murders in any city is noteworthy, but in a town of 10,000 people it is almost impossible to believe that something like this could really happen. Sadly, it did.

Despite the serial killer theory being pushed by local law enforcement, it becomes obvious to anyone paying attention that the murders resulted from what was happening within the prostitution/drug trade in Jeff Davis Parish. That eight young women could die at the rate of one every few months over the four years is astounding until, according to the author, one takes local law enforcement into account. Ethan Brown agues a strong case that local cops, politicians, businessmen, and drug trade power players were directly involved in the murders. And to this day, none of the murders have been officially solved.

Ethan Brown is a brave man. He names names while detailing exactly what he thinks happened to each of the eight murder victims. He spent time in and around Jennings, Louisiana (home base for all of the animals so intimately involved with these women) interviewing as many of the key players as possible. Brown makes sense of what life must have been like in Jennings between 2005 and 2009 when the women were disappearing at such a terrible rate. What you read will disgust you, because if even only half of what Brown tells the reader is true, Jennings was a cesspool - and might still be one.

Ethan Brown is one heck of an investigator, but unfortunately "Murder in the Bayou" is a bit of an organizational mess. Brown does, for the most part, organize his book chronologically, but it is still sometimes difficult to keep up with the people who move in that world because so few of them are fleshed out to the point that they seem to be real people. That this is no "In Cold Blood" is not surprising, of course, but that may be partially because Brown had so many characters to deal with in comparison to the Capote book, and he chose to do it in relatively few pages. That said, I can't remember when I've read a book that had such an abrupt, jarring ending as this one.

Bottom Line: If this book helps finds justice for eight young women who were brutally murdered in a town in which no one with any power seemed to care, it will be long remembered. ( )

Brown's investigative journalism on the Jeff Davis 8 prostitutes shines light on the lax, presumably crooked cops of the Cajun varietal. Well researched, but reads like a lengthy article. ( )

Being from South Louisiana, with “Murder in the Bayou”, I was expecting to read an objective exposé on the troubling and tragic issue euphemistically referred to as the Jeff Davis 8. Instead what I read, mixed among the facts as they are known, is a series of unsubstantiated allegations and abuses of journalistic decorum.

Initially, Brown’s line of reasoning seemed intriguing if not a bit forced at times. As the book progresses, however, one gets the impression that Brown’s antagonism is directed at law enforcement in general, from the Jeff Davis and Calcasieu Sheriff’s Office, to the Louisiana State Police implicating the whole lot, and not focused on the real aspect of the case and actual evidence pointing to certain perpetrators. Ethan, just because someone doesn’t want to talk to you doesn’t mean they have something to hide. If I was Sheriff Wood, I wouldn’t talk to you either. Every authority figure that does talk to you is painted as a conspirator in drugs, prostitution and murder.

Of course police and political corruption exists, and probably in this case. Nevertheless, Brown, fails in his attempt to pin the murders on the Jefferson Davis Parish Sheriff’s Department. Although it has not been established, it is not beyond the realm of possibility, and may even be probable, that some in authority in Jennings are culpable in the incidents surrounding the deaths of these 8 prostitutes and others. (Most of the allegations of high level police misconduct originate from the criminal element of Jennings, by the way. Hmm, go figure.) Brown, however, finds a conspirator and accomplice under every rock, as long as it’s wearing a badge. His ridiculous attempt to implicate Governor Bobby Jindal, by association and his derisive remark that “Jindal’s dissatisfaction fixed nothing” reveals much of Brown’s agenda.

This is revealed in Brown’s jargon as well. His incessant use of term “sex worker” instead of prostitute*, is not only annoying but comes off as nothing more than a clandestine attempt to legitimise that criminal activity. The innocuous locution does not dislodge the truth, however. Sheriff Edwards in his frankness, was absolutely right, the drug-addicted prostitutes of Jennings, known as the Jeff Davis 8, lived a “high risk lifestyle.”

*The word ‘prostitute’ is used not one single time in the entire book. Not surprisingly, neither is ‘whore’, ‘hooker’, ‘harlot’, or ‘wench’.

In Brown’s reasoning, the criminal element “might” be responsible for some foul play, but they are nothing more than pawns and victims of society being controlled and manipulated by the true offenders; the law.

Sadly, some of Brown’s assumption and theories may not be far removed from the truth, but to no avail. He loses all credibility and reveals himself as someone antagonistic to law enforcement and sympathetic to thugs explicitly in the Acknowledgements at the end of the ebook.

Brown states:

“So I have to express my incredible thanks and boundless gratitude to the protesters in the Ferguson/St. Louis area for bringing the issue of law enforcement misconduct into the public discourse. In a few months, you made possible what criminal justice system reformers have been unable to achieve for decades. Thank you. The future belongs to folks like y’all.”

A group of riotous thugs burning down their neighborhood has Ethan Brown’s boundless gratitude? Very telling. Brown’s misrepresentation of the incidents in Ferguson, Baton Rouge, et.al., to which he refers in the Acknowledgements is appalling. Surely, he cannot be uninformed on the facts of the cases. All this type of attitude does is demean the victims of actual police brutality and makes it more difficult for departments to deal with those officers.

Finally, although it is reasonable to believe that some cover-up has taken place, and that some officers were involved in at least some of the events surrounding these murders, it is reporting like this that paints an unambiguous picture, confuses the real issues and perpetuates a false narrative that too many people then assume to be true; because after all, they read it in a book.

THE NARRATION:
Traber Burns, as usual, does a great job with the narration. ( )

Being from South Louisiana, with “Murder in the Bayou”, I was expecting to read an objective exposé on the troubling and tragic issue euphemistically referred to as the Jeff Davis 8. Instead what I read, mixed among the facts as they are known, is a series of unsubstantiated allegations and abuses of journalistic decorum.

Initially, Brown’s line of reasoning seemed intriguing if not a bit forced at times. As the book progresses, however, one gets the impression that Brown’s antagonism is directed at law enforcement in general, from the Jeff Davis and Calcasieu Sheriff’s Office, to the Louisiana State Police implicating the whole lot, and not focused on the real aspect of the case and actual evidence pointing to certain perpetrators. Ethan, just because someone doesn’t want to talk to you doesn’t mean they have something to hide. If I was Sheriff Wood, I wouldn’t talk to you either. Every authority figure that does talk to you is painted as a conspirator in drugs, prostitution and murder.

Of course police and political corruption exists, and probably in this case. Nevertheless, Brown, fails in his attempt to pin the murders on the Jefferson Davis Parish Sheriff’s Department. Although it has not been established, it is not beyond the realm of possibility, and may even be probable, that some in authority in Jennings are culpable in the incidents surrounding the deaths of these 8 prostitutes and others. (Most of the allegations of high level police misconduct originate from the criminal element of Jennings, by the way. Hmm, go figure.) Brown, however, finds a conspirator and accomplice under every rock, as long as it’s wearing a badge. His ridiculous attempt to implicate Governor Bobby Jindal, by association and his derisive remark that “Jindal’s dissatisfaction fixed nothing” reveals much of Brown’s agenda.

This is revealed in Brown’s jargon as well. His incessant use of term “sex worker” instead of prostitute*, is not only annoying but comes off as nothing more than a clandestine attempt to legitimise that criminal activity. The innocuous locution does not dislodge the truth, however. Sheriff Edwards in his frankness, was absolutely right, the drug-addicted prostitutes of Jennings, known as the Jeff Davis 8, lived a “high risk lifestyle.”

*The word ‘prostitute’ is used not one single time in the entire book. Not surprisingly, neither is ‘whore’, ‘hooker’, ‘harlot’, or ‘wench’.

In Brown’s reasoning, the criminal element “might” be responsible for some foul play, but they are nothing more than pawns and victims of society being controlled and manipulated by the true offenders; the law.

Sadly, some of Brown’s assumption and theories may not be far removed from the truth, but to no avail. He loses all credibility and reveals himself as someone antagonistic to law enforcement and sympathetic to thugs explicitly in the Acknowledgements at the end of the ebook.

Brown states:

“So I have to express my incredible thanks and boundless gratitude to the protesters in the Ferguson/St. Louis area for bringing the issue of law enforcement misconduct into the public discourse. In a few months, you made possible what criminal justice system reformers have been unable to achieve for decades. Thank you. The future belongs to folks like y’all.”

A group of riotous thugs burning down their neighborhood has Ethan Brown’s boundless gratitude? Very telling. Brown’s misrepresentation of the incidents in Ferguson, Baton Rouge, et.al., to which he refers in the Acknowledgements is appalling. Surely, he cannot be uninformed on the facts of the cases. All this type of attitude does is demean the victims of actual police brutality and makes it more difficult for departments to deal with those officers.

Finally, although it is reasonable to believe that some cover-up has taken place, and that some officers were involved in at least some of the events surrounding these murders, it is reporting like this that paints an unambiguous picture, confuses the real issues and perpetuates a false narrative that too many people then assume to be true; because after all, they read it in a book. ( )

This is an interesting book about the unsolved murders of eight women in a small town in Louisiana. It is a short book, and it is less about the murders themselves than about the rampant police corruption in this town particularly and Louisiana more broadly. The writer is very clearly a journalist and his writing is concise and readable.

The author does speculate somewhat, and he does rely on anonymous witnesses. Normally I find that to be somewhat off-putting in a true crime book, but he seems to have a very healthy skepticism and corroborates where possible.

I've read other reviews of this book where the reviewers are frustrated by the author's very brief mention of the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, MO, calling it irrelevant or saying its inclusion is a political statement. For starters, it is mentioned almost in passing in the body of the book, and given an acknowledgment in the afterword. Second, the book is about the eight women who died, yes, but it is really about the gross negligence, incompetence, and outright corruption within the Jennings (and surrounding area) law enforcement community that has prevented the murders from being solved. The DoJ found that Ferguson was plagued with similar problems, and the issues associated with getting justice in a community where the police are operating virtually unchecked are the same.

I am only giving the book 4 stars because after awhile, I found it very difficult to follow the cast of characters and their deeply interwoven lives. The beginning of the book does have a summary of who each person is, and I recommend bookmarking that, because you will need to reference it often. ( )

An absolutely fucked miscarriage of justice.

May the South never rise again! ( )