Would-be district attorney Richard Cotton has hired private detective Neal Rafferty to keep tabs on his wife. His wife, Paula Cotton, has hired the cool and classy Lee Diamond to keep tabs on her husband. It's almost Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and when the masks go on they hide a multitude of sins—like bribery, corruption, and drug-running, not to mention Richard Cotton's particular secret. And when the bodies start showing up, Rafferty realizes that adultery is not the name of the game. In the gentleman's city of New Orleans, all things eventually settle into the Mississippi River mud. It's a question of what stays buried.

A phone call at midnight. A cocktail lounge on New Orleans's West Bank. A young woman who wants to photograph prostitutes and re-create Bellocq's famous Storyville portraits. And murder. These are the threads that lead private eye Neal Rafferty into a labyrinth of danger in the Crescent City . . . where crime is always hot, spicy, and full-flavored with suspense. The phone call is from his old girlfriend Jackie Silva. A loan shark named Bubba Brevna is threatening to collect from Jackie the traditional way . . . with pain. He's already moved into her establishment—the Emerald Lizard—with a bouncer called Godzilla, some call girls, and a set of muscular twins with one brain between them who are running "chicken drop" contests on the dance floor. What Rafferty can't foresee is that, within days, the Emerald Lizard will be torched and Jackie Silva will be dead; soon, the young photographer will be missing. Rafferty begins a dark journey of guilt, grief, and...

RetailNorma Wallace grew up fast in the rough neighborhoods of New Orleans. In 1916, as an ambitious fifteen-year-old, she went to work as a street-walker in the French Quarter, but by 1920 was madam of what became one of the city’s most lavish brothels, an establishment frequented by politicians, movie stars, gangsters, and even the notoriously corrupt police force.  For decades, Norma flourished, a smart, glamorous, powerful woman whose scandalous life made front-page headlines.  Her lovers ran the gamut from a bootlegger who shot her during a fight, to a famed bandleader, to the boy next door, thirty-nine years her junior, who became her fifth husband. She knew all of the Crescent City’s dirty little secrets and used them to protect her own interests—she never got so much as a traffic ticket—until the early 1960s, when District Attorney Jim Garrison decided to clean up vice and corruption.  After a jail stay, she went legitimate as successfully as she had gone criminal, with a lucrative restaurant business. To the end Norma maintained her independence, and surrendered only to an irrational, obsessive love, which ultimately led to her violent death. In The Last Madam, author Christine Wiltz combines original research with Wallace’s personal memoirs to bring to life an era in New Orleans history rife with charm and decadence, and to reveal the colorful woman who reigned as its underworld queen.

From the author of The Last Madam: A Life in the New Orleans Underworld comes an edgy novel, a racy gumbo of suspense, comedy, and sisters in crime.Karen and Raynie are roommates hiding from sticky pasts. When vengeful gangsters and old boyfriends descend, Karen can't hide from the Miami thug who wants his money back, and Raynie's would-be rapist gets a gun and goes on a rampage. To top it off, Karen's boss, LaDonna, has a young lover with a new and dangerous idea. The three women unite to face the repercussions of the stolen money and the violence that ensues.From Mamou to Miami to New Orleans, money and friendship are at the heart of Shoot the Money as it explores women's desires for big bucks. They see what money does to those who have it, lose it, pursue it, or steal it—and what happens when they try a little revenge on their rapid chase toward a better life.They've got the money, they're smart, and they're daring. And they've got a...