In the fall of 2006, a year after Katrina, Times-Picayune headlines detailed the murder of young French Quarter denizen Addie Hall, murdered by her boyfriend. Her body was found butchered and in pieces in the refrigerator and cooking pots in the couple’s French Quarter apartment. A few days after the murder, the boyfriend, 26-year-old Zackery Bowen, committed suicide by jumping off the roof of the Omni Royal Orleans Hotel, and police were led to the grisly crime scene by a note in Bowen’s pocket. It’s the account of a volatile relationship gone terribly wrong, but it’s a lot more than that. Author Brown, who has two other investigative non-fiction books under his belt, delves into the lives of Bowen and Hall, their relationship with each other, New Orleans, and the unique little world of the French Quarter—almost another character in the book.
Brown clearly is fascinated by our little corner of the world. He also demonstrates a deep understanding about how New Orleans is: inept and corrupt politics, its avant-garde citizenry, its attraction for creative folk, crazy folk, and people who might be considered quite eccentric in other parts of America. He gets New Orleans and the people who choose to reside here, despite all the crap that we have to deal with as a trade-off for living in the country’s most fascinating city.
Brown speculates over why Bowen “snapped,” offering severe, untreated PTSD as a possible explanation (Bowen served in both Bosnia and in Iraq). But Brown goes further and does a lot of investigative work about PTSD, its effects on young military men returning from battle, and how the U.S. government has not addressed the problems these soldiers face when they return home. While the crime was horrifying, our government’s failure to address the mental issues that come from serving in battle is even more so. Two young lives were lost in a terrible way, he contends, but many others were affected by the crime and the PTSD that may have precipitated it. And Shake the Devil Off shows that there could be more Bowens and Halls all over the U.S. if the problem isn’t addressed.
