Book Review: Chasing the Devil's Tail & Jass

I am an avid reader of all kinds of books. I think I've read more books than watched movies this semester. I enjoy reading non-fiction books about people, events, concepts, etc. but I enjoy a good novel once in while as well. I recently read Jass and Chasing the Devil's Tail, both by David Fulmer. These books can be called historical fiction because they feature real people that lived in real places during real historical events. It is a good combination of fiction and non-fiction in the same story.

These books take place in Storyville, a red-light district of New Orleans, right around the turn of the 20th century. They feature Tom Anderson, the unofficial mayor of Storyville; E. J. Bellocq, noted photographer; Ferdinand LaMothe, better known as Jelly Roll Morton, jazz pianist; and Buddy Bolden, cornetist and the man most historians credit with creating jazz as we know it. All these people were real but the story revolves around fictitional detective Valentin St. Cyr, a Creole of color. It also describes real streets, bars, stores, and brothels the way they existed at the time.

I do not know how I came to own this book but I found Jass in my closet a few months ago. I read it not knowing that it was the second book in a series of mysteries that have the same detective. I enjoyed it thoroughly and decided to get the first book Chasing the Devil's Tail. Both stories are murder mysteries infused with an atmosphere of rainy southern Louisianna where the depravity of prostitution is commonplace and a new craze in music is rising from being played only in seedy bars in the middle of the night to infecting high class white society. This music is known only as jass but would later be called jazz and be regarded as America's lone contribution to the world of art.

I consider myself a musician. I really enjoy playing jazz and am interested in the history of the music and its prominant figures. Couple that with an exciting, suspenseful murder mystery and I greatly enjoyed reading these novels. I have since ordered Rampart Street, the third book in the series, and am awaiting its arrival in the mail. To appease my non-fiction side I have also ordered In Search of Buddy Bolden, First Man of Jazz as a result from reading about this enigmatic genius in these two novels. I highly recommend Chasing the Devil's Tail and Jass by David Fulmer. I will let you know how Rampart Street is once I finish it. I'm looking forward to reading it and anticipate that it will be just as good if not better.