Barataria Summer

Maturity comes fast and furious when you are looking down the barrel of a Thompson submachine gun. <P>For sixteen-year-old T'Eddie Leymoine a summer spent with an enterprising gun-running uncle has no shortage of hair-raising lessons. Ventures with Uncle George in Louisiana bayou country expose the boy to alligator poaching cock fighting and the art of deceiving the authorities. The ribald antics favored by George involve houses of ill repute and encounters with a young freelance miss. And then there's LaBelle a local girl whose intentions make T'Eddie's summer even crazier. <P>George's line of business isn't popular with everyone. Close-minded custom collectors and hired assassins complicate things for George and his nephew and flaming shootouts have a way of breaking out. But the real trouble begins when George messes with a smuggler. The consequences could be lethal unless T'Eddie steps up and finds a way to save his uncle.<P>The third in a series of stories by Francis P. Trudell this reckless ride through the bayous around Barataria Bay brings the Prohibition era of feigned innocence and convenient morals back to life as a boy learns about the ways of men during one sweltering summer.