Thomas Zigal

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"A page-turner with a conscience."
-- Booklist

"Deliciously complicated."
-- Kirkus Reviews

"A solidly written, adroitly plotted and satisfyingly ethics-driven tale."
-- Publishers Weekly

"A remarkable achievement."
-- James Crumley

Tom reading at the February 24, 2005 book signing at Barnes & Noble in Austin.

Tom with friends Bruce Coe, Caren Coe, and Kathleen Skinner (background) at the February 24 book signing at the Barnes & Noble in Austin.

Tom with sculptor David Everett at the February 24 book signing at the Barnes & Noble in Austin. Robin Jamail and Jackie Faulkner are standing in the background.

Authors Paul Foreman and Gene Fowler at Tom's book signing on February 24 in Austin.

Tom with Colleen Devine, Barnes & Noble Community Relations Manager for the Austin event on February 24.

Tom with novelist Sarah Bird at the February 24 book signing at Barnes & Noble in Austin.

Tom with Terry Wilson at the book signing on February 24 in Austin.

Tom with old friend Doug Kirby at the Barnes & Noble in Houston (Westheimer) on March 12, 2005. Doug Kirby is a musician who played in bands called The Nomads and Smoke, in the 1960s, with Tom's brother, Frank Zigal.

Tom with his old friend Jeanne DuPrau in front of the Ransom Center at The University of Texas. Jeanne is the author of The City of Ember (and the Ember series) and contemporary classic The Earth House, a beautiful meditation on love, Zen Buddhism, and housebuilding. She was in Austin to promote her new book, The Prophet of Yonwood. Tom and Jeanne met in 1972 as editors at a publishing company in Menlo Park, California.

Tom and Sheila Allee, author of Texas Mutiny: Bullets, Ballots, and Boss Rule, at the Marble Falls (Texas) Library on March 31, 2006. Sheila drove down from Lubbock to visit her mother in Marble Falls and to see Tom speak at the library.

Tom with library director Mary Jackson (left, in Mardi Gras purple) and friends at the Marble Falls Library on March 31, 2006. Mary is the librarian who invited Tom to share a New Orleans lunch of red beans and rice and to address the book lovers of Marble Falls. The tables were festooned with Mardi Gras beads. Laissez les bons temps roulez!

Malik Rahim (left), co-founder of the relief organization Common Ground, with Tom and Bob Tucker at Fair Grinds coffeehouse in New Orleans, May 13, 2006. Tom read at a benefit for Common Ground.

Walkin' to New Orleans

I was in New Orleans on May 13, 2006, to participate in a benefit for the relief organization Common Ground. I joined my old friend Don Paul at Fair Grinds coffeehouse (near the Fairgrounds) and read from The White League. All proceeds went to Common Ground.

It was my first trip to New Orleans since Katrina. My son and I toured the Lakeview neighborhood and the site of his old child care center. The entire corner where the center had once existed was now bulldozed. Lakeview had received eight to ten feet of floodwater.

Don Paul took us on a tour of the Lower Ninth Ward, which looked like Dresden after the War. We had permission to enter one of the houses that hadn't been cleaned out. The furniture was topsy-turvy, personal papers and photographs were scattered everywhere, and mold was in full bloom. One of the neighbors dropped by to make sure we weren't looters.

"The sliver by the river," as they're calling the area that escaped flooding -- Uptown, the Garden District, and the French Quarter -- all seem normal. But the rest of the city is in slow recovery. And most observers are predicting that many areas will be bulldozed to make room for whatever is next.

Tom on the Strand in Galveston at his 40th high school reunion with the Class of 1966 from De La Salle, Lafayette LA. Left to right: Peter O'Carroll, Dave Murrin, Armand Gonsoulin, David Heard, Tom, and their principal, John Burke. June 2006.

Tom at the 2004 Texas Book Festival with fellow writers April Smith (North of Montana and the Ana Grey mystery series) and Gary Phillips (Ivan Monk mystery series). April and Tom have been friends since they met in the Stanford Writing Program in 1971. Tom met Gary at the Left Coast Crime conference in Boulder, 1996.

Tom discussing state secrets with Bob Woodward. Austin, Texas.

Tom explaining his investigative techniques to Woodward and Bernstein, campus of The University of Texas at Austin.