The Axeman's Jazz by Ray Celestin

I have never been to New Orleans, but after completing Ray Celestin’s debut novel The Axeman’s Jazz I’m hooked, and now the unique carnival city sits on my list of places to visit.

Within reading the first few chapters of historical crime thriller I found myself googling pictures of the French Quarter, lapping up words such as Banquette*, searching for recipes for Gumbo and discovering recently colour-restored pictures of Louis Armstrong.

It seems odd that a novel based on an unsolved serial killer case would make you want to visit the place it is set. 

I first heard of the Axeman of New Orleans after watching American Horror Story, a series which embodies the modern day obsession with all things gruesome, and like Ray Celestin’s creation demonstrates why New Orleans is a wonderland setting for any writer.

French Quarter http://www.trekexchange.com/tours/99

The case is as follows…

From May 1918 and October 1919 eight people were brutally murdered in New Orleans by a killer who was never caught. 

On March 13 1919 a letter was published in the local newspapers from the Axeman with the ominous threat that on following Tuesday any home which did not have a jazz band playing on 12.15 “will get the axe.”

The case shares parallels to Victorian London’s Jack The Ripper, an unsolved set of grisly murders in a city loaded with underworld tensions, ripe for the picking for any grabbing sensationalist reporter, conspiracy theorist or future crime writer.

Ray Celestin seems to be a member of the historical crime club and pays tribute to one of its founding fathers Sherlock Holmes in the form of the character Ida Davis; a budding young female detective who enlists the help of her friend Lewis Armstrong to find answers. 

Alongside the pair Celesin also supplies a disgraced cop, Luca d’ Andrea and his former protégé Lieutenant Michael Talbot who are carrying out separate investigations of the murders. 

Ray Celestin tails the three leads and tours New Orleans in the early twenties - perusing the haunts of the Mafia, exploring the Voodoo dens of the Bayou and jumping aboard a cruising Tramp Steamer -  all the while enjoying the linguistic delights of the local tongue, sampling words such as tignons, fichus and colporteur.

The Axeman’s Jazz is a lovely fanciful bite of ghastly escapism to cuddle up to.

As of yet I haven’t booked by plane ticket to Louisiana so for now my New Orleans reading wishlist will have to do.. 

* Banquette – a sidewalk, the term is typically used in Costal Louisiana and is French in origin.

New Orleans Reading List:

Anything by Anne Rice but The Feast of All Saints tops the list.

Gumbo Tales: Finding My Place at the New Orleans Table by Sara Roahen - According to reviews this book makes to want to visit New Orleans instantly, plus anything with food for me is a winner.

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy - a posthumous winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.