Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Mardi Gras and New Orleans Crime Fiction

Today is Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday. Mardi Gras or Carnivale, whatever you call it, is a great setting for Murder! Busy streets, crowds, costumes, drinking.. mix it all together, and you have a recipe for the perfect crime novel.

I've expanded my list again to include more New Orleans books that might not take place exactly at Mardi Gras, as well as several eBooks. As always, I welcome additional titles.

The Mardi Gras Mystery by Henry Bedford-Jones
Death Visits Mardi Gras by J.J. Boortz
Fat Tuesday by Sandra Brown
Purple Cane Road, Dixie City Jam, The Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke 
Gumbo Justice, Jambalaya Justice by Holli Castillo 
Murder Comes to Mardi Gras, Death Swatch, Keepsake Crimes, Death by Design by Laura Childs
Mardi Gras Murders by Nicole Daines and Robert Daines
The Mardi Gras Murders by Ricardo S. Dubois
No Mardi Gras for the Dead by D.J. Donaldson
Shelter from the Storm by Tony Dunbar
The Big Uneasy-Terror Strikes Mardi Gras by Murray C. Fincher
The Unknown Terrorist by Richard Flanagan
Carnaval Capers by Jody Ford
Carnival by Charlotte Foryan
Venetian Mask by Mickey Friedman
Jass, Rampart Street by David Fulmer
Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead by Sara Gran
A Free Man of Color, Fever Season, Sold Down the River by Barbara Hambly
Mardi Gras Mamo by Greg Herren
A Thin Dark Line by Tami Hoag
The Mardi Gras Mystery by Carolyn Keene
Storm Damage by Ed Kovacs
The Mardi Gras Murders by Gwen Bristow & Bruce Manning
by Gilbert Morris
Mardi Gras Eyes by Phyllis Morris
Masques by Bill Pronzini
Mardi Gras Murders by Phillip Scott
New Orleans Mourning by Julie Smith
A Diamond Before You Die by Chris Wiltz

Other Mystery Authors who set Novels in New Orleans: Laura Childs, Robert Crais (The Voodoo River) Gilbert Morris, James Sallis
 
Short Stories
New Orleans Noir, edited by Julie Smith
Mardi Gras Madness: Tales of Terror and Mayhem in New Orleans, edited by Russell Davis and Martin Harry Greenberg

Kindle eBooks:
A Venetian June by Anna Fuller and Frederick Simpson Coburn 
Mask of the Betrayer by Sharon Donovan 
Novel Noir by Lewis Faulkner 
Bourbon Street by Leonce Gaiter 
Bourbon Street Blues, Jackson Square Jazz, Mardi Gras Mambo by Greg Herren
Mardi Gravestone by Sandy Semerad
love, murder, etc by Kahtleen Valentine
Cruel Woman Blues, Cities of the Dead, Wild Magnolias, Pontchartrain by Eric Wilder
Fair Warning by Bob Zimmerman

To celebrate Fat Tuesday, you might want to have some Chocolate Chip Pancakes or Chocolate Chunk Pecan Pie or Chocolate "Cupped" Cakes with Coffee & Chicory. If you're celebrating Mardi Gras in Mobile, Alabama, or along the Gulf Coast, have a Moon Pie. Read more here. They're a favorite 'throw' in Mobile.

2 comments:

Priscilla said...

And with those chocolate delights, sit down for reruns of Treme...

Unknown said...

Don't forget The Mardi Gras Two-Step by Barry Vass, which was released April 15, 2014, by Whiskey Creek Press. Here's the link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Mardi-Gras-Two-Step-Barry-Vass-ebook/dp/B00JRME9YK