JASS (The Valentin St. Cyr Mysteries)

In the red-light district New Orleans, players of the new music they call "jass"
have been turning up dead.

To Storyville detective Valentin St. Cyr, it's no surprise. These characters,
mostly lowdown "rounders," walk on the wild side, working their rowdy music
through the night and spending their days in excess that sets the tone for a
hundred years of American musical mayhem to follow.

Anyway, the Creole detective has his own problems. With his woman Justine
drifting back to the life of a sporting girl, the last thing he needs is some tawdry
distraction.

But this is Storyville, and nothing is ever quite as it seems. Once Valentin is
persuaded to investigate, he discovers that the deaths are not random at all,
because every one of the victims once played in the same band. Four are dead,
and the only one left alive has gone into hiding.

As he digs deeper, Valentin becomes convinced that a certain mysterious
woman is the key to the mystery. He's digging too deep, though, and soon Tom
Anderson, "The King of Storyville," police lieutenant J. Picot, and even the
Chief of Police want him off the case. It's all the proof he needs that there is
something larger and darker at the heart of this sordid business.

Indeed, this is a tale of dark secrets that lurk in the shadows of the New
Orleans nights, under the painted faces of the sporting girls, and especially
behind the loud, wild music that echoes up the scarlet streets.
"Jass" is a compelling sequel to David Fulmer's award-winning and
critically-acclaimed "Chasing the Devil's Tail" - an even deeper and darker
journey into the bloody and raucous miasma called Storyville