Storyville, New Orleans, 1907. In this raucous, rowdy, bloody red-light district, where 2,000 scarlet women ply their trade in grand mansions and filthy dime-a-trick cribs, cocaine and opium are sold over the counter, and rye whiskey flows like an amber river, there's a killer loose. Chasing the Devil's Tail is an original tale or murder, music, and madness, set in a remarkable time and place in American history. Someone is murdering Storyville prostitutes and marking each killing with a black rose. There's a new music called "jass"in the air. And madness is shattering the mind of "King" Buddy Bolden, even as he showers the New Orleans nights with his loud brass. When Creole detective Valentin St. Cyr is sent to bring down the murderer, he encounters an extraordinary cast of characters, many of them drawn from history: Tom Anderson, the political boss who runs Storyville like a private kingdom; Lulu White, the District's most notorious madam, later an inspiration for Mae West; E. J. Bellocq, the crippled dwarf and photographer of Storyville whores; Ferdinand LeMenthe, the young piano player who would come to be known as Jelly Roll Morton; and finally, Buddy Bolden, the man who all but invented jazz and is now losing his mind. No ordinary mystery, Chasing the Devil's Tail is steeped in a gumbo of race, color, and class. It's a portrait of musical genius and self-destruction, set at the very moment when jazz is being born. It's also a story about the travails of friendship, as St. Cyr pursues a vicious murderer who could well be his childhood friend Bolden. Then again, the killer could be any of the other characters that people this world. There's more than one twist to this story. After all, it's what you'd expect if you go chasing the devil's tail. Read Less