Words leave imprints in your mind like footprints in the sand...
1919 – Louisiana is known for some fantastic fiction. This new addition to the list deserves to be there -it was inspired by a true story and is as dark and spooky as you would wish New Orleans to be – from the comfort of your armchair of course.
New Orleans, 1919. A serial killer – The Axeman – stalks the city.
Detective Lieutenant Michael Talbot, heading up the official investigation, is struggling to find leads. He thinks the inhabitants of the town are hiding something, but then again so is he….
Former detective Luca d’Andrea has spent the last six years in Angola state penitentiary for his corrupt past. Now free, he finds himself working with the mafia, whose need to solve the mystery of the Axeman is every bit as urgent as the authorities’.
Ida is a secretary at the Pinkerton Detective Agency. One day she stumbles across a clue which lures her and her trumpet-playing friend, Lewis ‘Louis’ Armstrong, to the case and into terrible danger…
Will any of them have the slightest chance of unmasking the Axeman?
Based upon a real unsolved crime – when a killer dubbed, “the New Orleans Axeman” murdered several people between 1918-1919. The fear of the people who live through the Axeman era is palpable as is the fear of a man released from prison and who is still under the control of the mafia.
The gem of this book is the true facts and background knowledge which came through such as the character of Ida who works for a detective agency but decides to branch out on her own in the hunt for the killer and the friendship she has with a certain Louis Armstrong.
Apart from the murder and crime elements the city is painted as THE jazz capital which of course it still is to a large extent. You can hear the music and the cheers as you enter the club scenes and even when you don’t – the bourbon and the music are infused on every page. The jazz music sets the scene for the murders and for the spirit of the city at large –
Mixed in with the racial tension and the burgeoning unease amongst the many ethnic groups in the city and you have some explosive ingredients for a city on the edge.
Susan:
Blimey! I haven’t been as scandalised as this for a long time. This was a true story! Having always loved Jazz and been to New Orleans to see the greats play, this is one story which really chilled.
The infamous letter supposedly from the Axman saying that he is to pass through the city but will spare anyone playing jazz music.Now back to a few months prior to the letter being sent, with the murders having already started –many victims have already been found butchered, many of the Sicilian grocery store owners. The doors always seemed to be locked from the inside proving mad theories to emerge as to who this axeman was – some kind of phantom?
Everyone wants to find out who this Axeman is and what exactly he wants.
A lovely dual story was added by Ida who works at Pinkerton’s Detective Agency but barred by her gender and her race from joining the police. I really loved her character and her friendship with the late great Louis Armstrong added a unique dimension evoking the essence and music of the time.
But the focus of the novel is of course the fear, the overriding sense that a real life Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is roaming the streets of New Orleans.
Based on real events and so all the more scary for it. A real booktrail around the city and its history of intrigue and jazz music.
