The Hippie in the Wall - Hardcover

Fennelly, Tony

3.26

23 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312104758 ISBN 13: 9780312104757

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 1994

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When workmen discover a corpse dating back twenty years stuffed in the wall of a topless bar in New Orleans's French Quarter, it raises any number of questions. Questions like who is this person, how did he get there, and who is responsible. With no clues to go on and a mysterious corpse on his hands, Lt. Frank Washington of the Homocide Division turns to an unlikely source for help - Margo Fortier.
Margo Fortier is a woman with a past. While now a prominent member of New Orleans society - due to her marriage of convenience to the quietly gay scion of an old respected family - and a society/gossip columnist for the local paper, twenty years ago she was known as Cherry, a topless dancer at the bar in which the corpse was uncovered. Margo, driven by the twin desires of protecting her own precarious positions and uncovering a good story that will finally get her off the gossip beat, agrees to help the police try to identify the corpse.
Armed with questions and a reconstructed photo of the deceased, Margo tracks down the other former employees of the bar in a quest that takes her through all levels of New Orleans society, from the mainstream wealthy to the eccentric fringe, and uncovers a deadly conspiracy that endangers not only her position but her life.

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About the Author:

Tony Fennelly is an actress living in New Orleans. Her first novel, The Glory Hole Murders, was nominated for an Edgar and since then her mysteries have been published in the U.S. and abroad.

From Kirkus Reviews:

The discovery of a 20-year-old corpse in the wall of Madame Julie's, a New Orleans strip joint, turns out to be a big break for Times-Picayune gossip columnist Margo Fortier, whose long marriage of convenience to barely closeted society scion Julian Fortier hides her former identity as Cherry, a veteran of Julie's. Now, Margo hopes to make the leap to hard news, armed with her identification of the body as peacenik Eric Dowd and her friendship with the other strippers: wigged-out fortuneteller Eileen (Samantha) Herd, lesbian friend-of-battered-wives Toby (the Texas Tornado) Castle, and ageless gymnast Sheila Casey, still plying her trade in Bourbon Street ever since Eric's disappearance cost her the chance to become Mrs. Dowd. There's not an ounce of gravity in the buried-secrets plot; even the present-day detection, set against the background of Desert Storm, is a dose of instant nostalgia. Mildly diverting lightweight fare, pleasantly toned down from the in-your-face Gay Pride antics of The Closet Hanging (1987). -- Copyright �1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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