Alas, David, you have done us wrong!! Imagine penning an entire book based on New Orleans and a "Creole" detective, yet apparently not knowing the meaning of the term. Why do you refer to St. Cyr as a Creole of 'mixed race'? That is NOT the meaning of the term Creole!! A creole is a person born in the West Indies or Latin America, who is really of European ancestry, particularly Spanish. It may also mean a person of mixed Spanish and French ancestry. Anyone familiar with New Orleans, or Louisiana in general, knows a person of mixed race is NOT referred to as Creole. Give us a break. Makes me prefer to read something by Ace Atkins instead.

It's hard to take an author -- and a publisher -- seriously when something as basic as the protagonist's identity is botched.
The author is obviously not familiar with New Orleans and its history. Creoles are not light-skinned African-Americans of mixed blood; they are people of mixed French and Spanish ancestry. A very famous Louisiana Creole, for instance, was the Confederate general, Pierre Gustave-Toutant (P.G.T.) Beauregard.
A fascinating era and locale, Storyville in the early 20th century, are wasted at once by the entire pretense of this book. There is no room for this kind of "literary license" in good fiction.

As a frequent visitor to New Orleans as well as a fan of all that city's great music, I am always interested in fun fiction that covers this territory. I picked this book up on a whim and was amply rewarded -- not only does Fulmer bring historical characters (such as Buddy Bolden, Lulu White, and - very briefly - a young Louis Armstrong) alive, he places them perfectly in their city in their time (the flooding, the banquettes, even the use of terms like "lucifer" for what we now call a match). Well written, with believable people and good musical description, this was just a not-to-be-put-down read. OK, maybe it's not quite "Coming Through Slaughter" (Michael Ondaatje's masterful recreation of Bolden's life), but it beats the hell out of a lot of other mysteries that trade off the Crescent City's allure. This reader eagerly awaits Fulmer's next book.