Who doesn’t love a good party? With Mardi Gras occurring this week partygoers will have much to celebrate. While not everyone can take to the streets of New Orleans to party, there are plenty of books set in the city to give you that same colorful flavor.
Mardi Gras refers to the carnival events surrounding the celebration, according to Wikipedia. Known as Fat Tuesday or Shrove Tuesday in English, it’s the last night before the fasting season of Lent. Mardi Gras is celebrated around the world with great revelry, lots of food and merrymaking. Many cities celebrate this holiday, but it is best known for the celebrations in the ethnic French city of New Orleans. Mardi Gras has its roots going back to 1699 in the United States.
King Louis XIV of France sent the brothers Pierre Le Moyne d’lberville and Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville to claim the territory of Louisiane (Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana) for France. On March 3, 1699 the expedition brought them to an area 60 miles south of New Orleans where they set up camp and named the spot Point du Mardi Gras which is French for Mardi Gras Point and the nearby tributary became Bayou Mardi Gras.
While most people associate New Orleans with its Mardi Gras celebration there is much more to the city. Known for its flavorful French cuisine, the city is also rich in architecture, strong in voice, music and soul. No wonder so many writers choose New Orleans as the setting for their novels.
If you’d like to read about Mardi Gras celebrations in novels you may enjoy the following books.
Death swatch: a scrapbooking mystery by Laura Childs
When float designer Archie Baudier turns up dead during a Mardi Gras party at Jeckl Hardy’s French Quarter apartment, scrapbook store owner Carmela Bertrand, a guest at the party, races against time to find the killer before she becomes the next victim.
Fat Tuesday by Sandra Brown
In the French Quarter during Mardi Gras week, New Orleans narcotics cop Burke Basile sets out to avenge the acquittal of the murderer of his partner by kidnapping the sheltered wife of the defense attorney.
New Orleans mourning by Julie Smith
In New Orleans, police detective Skip Langdon searches for the killer of Rex, King of Carnival for this year’s Mardi Gras, a member of the powerful but tragic St. Amant family.
A thin dark line by Tami Hoag
This book follows the struggle of Louisiana investigator Annie Broussard to bring to justice the killer of a young woman, a quest that allies her with a shady, volatile fellow detective.
A free man of color by Barbara Hambly
As Mardi Gras draws near in 1833 New Orleans, Benjamin January, a Creole musician and free Black man, struggles to clear his name when he becomes suspect in the murder of an octoroon woman.
If you like fiction with New Orleans as the setting may we suggest the following new titles.
Devious by Lisa Jackson
When her sister, a novice nun named Camille, is found brutally murdered at St. Marguerite’s Cathedral in New Orleans, Valerie Houston, convinced that the police aren’t doing enough, investigates and discovers that a depraved killer is determined to purge St. Marguerite’s of all of its sins.
Phantom evil by Heather Graham
Heading a group of paranormal investigators for the government, Jackson Crow, part English, part Cheyenne, uses his link to the realm of spirits to help solve the mysterious death of a senator’s wife with the help of Angela Hawkins, a police officer with paranormal intuition.
Storm damage by Ed Kovacs
Investigating the murder of a politically connected New Orleans bar owner in the aftermath of a devastating Category 5 hurricane, former police officer and mixed-marital artist Cliff St. James discovers possible CIA involvement in the crime.
Image courtesy of: http://www.holidays.net/mardigras/images/hostory01.jpg
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