Moth - James Sallis

One of the very few lights from Lew Griffin's dark and violent past has flickered out. His one-time lover, La Verne Adams is dead - and her daughter, Alouette, has vanished into a seamy, dead-end world of users and abusers... leaving behind a crack-addicted infant and a mystery. Abandoning his former career for the safety of teaching, Lew Griffin now spends his time in an old house in the garden district - determined to keep his distance from the temptations of the New Orleans night. But an inescapable obligation to an old friend is drawing the tormented Lew like a moth to a flame.