And Sometimes I Wonder About You by Walter Mosley
New York PI Leonid Trotter McGill has a chaotic personal life. His wife is lying in a care home, broken and depressed as a result of years of mutual betrayal and infidelity. His brother is serving a life term in an Indiania prison. His son…
Natchez Burning
This is a giant of a book in length, moral stature, and the sheer intensity of the writing. Penn Cage is a lawyer-turned-politician in Natchez, Mississipi – a small town with a big history. As the ghosts of the paddle steamers chug silently by on the…
The Axeman’s Jazz
Based on the true story of a series of killings in post-WWI New Orleans, this book is a heady mix of soulful music, savage murder and the unique atmosphere of The Big Easy. In one sense it is a period police procedural, but as Detective…
NTN: The Axeman’s Jazz by Ray Celestin
Thirty years after Jack the Ripper stalked London’s foggy streets, a jazz-loving serial killer terrorised New Orleans. Between May 1918 and October 1919, eight people were murdered by the shadowy killer, who attacked his victims with their own chopper. The Axeman was never caught and,…
A Madras Miasma
Set in the eponymous Indian city just after World War I, the green shoots of India’s desire for independence are pushing through. Superintendent Christian Le Fanu is in self-imposed exile from England, and is summoned to investigate when the body of a white woman is…
A Madras Miasma by Brian Stoddart
The setting is 1920, in the teeming city of Madras (present day Chennai) on the south eastern coast of India. Superintendent Christian Le Fanu of the Indian Police Service has been called to the banks of a filthy city canal which is, in reality, little…
Present Darkness by Malla Gunn
Present Darkness is the fourth installment in Malla Nunn’s series of novels starring Detective Sergeant Emmanuel Cooper. The cover – a picture of two rhinos ambling across a dry plain – could be a South African tourism advertisement, except for the grey clouds and burnt…