Katrina making way into novels

NEW ORLEANS, Aug. 2 (UPI) -- Lawlessness left in Hurricane Katrina's wake has found its way into the pages of several novels over the two years since the storm struck Louisiana.

Novelist James Lee Burke, creator of Louisiana's famous-but-fictitious detective Dave Robicheaux, finds "The Tin Roof Blowdown," listed at No. 35 on the USA Today's Best-Selling Books list. In the novel, Robicheaux investigates the vigilante shooting of black looters.

Burke's account follows a handful of other novels about Katrina, including Patty Friedmann's "A Little Bit Ruined," about an eccentric woman who refuses to evacuate, and "Tubby Meets Katrina," Anthony Dunbar's tale in which a killer escapes jail after the hurricane.

Will Murphy, a senior editor at Random House, told USA Today he expects more fictionalized accounts using Hurricane Katrina as a backdrop -- eventually.

"If, as they say, journalism is the first draft of history, fiction may be the last draft," Murphy said.