Sunday, March 6, 2011

Mardi Gras Mysteries

Tuesday is Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday. Mardi Gras/Carnivale, whatever you call it, is the perfect time and place for Murder!

This year, I've expanded my list 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 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 Streetby David Fulmer
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
The Mardi Gras Murders by Bristow C. Manning
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

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 
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.

5 comments:

Linda said...

I love Mardi Gras in New Orleans but haven't yet made it back since Katrina. Thanks so much for this list--it has added several more titles to my TBR mountain ;-)

Unknown said...

Another excellent New Orleans-based mystery is Holli Castillo's "Gumbo Justice."

Janet Rudolph said...

thanks, Joe, and I'll add it.

Elizabeth said...

Who knew there was that much crime going on at Mardi Gras? ;-)

Holli Castillo said...

Janet, thanks for adding Gumbo Justice to your list, and Joe, thanks for suggesting it! We're gearing up for Mardi Grad right now, with beautiful weather expected and the city already shutting down.

Mardi Gras is the perfect backdrop for crime, because everything is so crazy and Mardi Gras day is so crowded, (and sometimes so drunk), and so many people in costumes, it would be easy to slip in and out of the crowd if you really planned it well.

I'll eventually have to have someone murdered during Mardi Gras--in a novel, I mean.

Holli Castillo
Gumbo Justice
Jambalaya Justice coming 2011