MORTAL SINS

" The year is 1927, a time for bootleg gin, hot jazz, and sudden death. The place is a city that inters its dead above ground but keeps its secrets darkly buried. Here native son and seasoned homicide cop Daman Rourke, a haunted widower also mourning the death of a fellow cop and close friend, walks into a scene of appalling bloodshed.

On a hot summer night, inside a slave shack on the St. Claire estate, reckless, womanizing attorney Charles St. Claire has been brutally stabbed to death. A glass of absinthe laced with cocaine is also found on the scene. And in the elegantly appointed big house, a world-celebrated beauty stands covered in her husband's blood, trying to hide the bruises on her face and professing her innocence. She is Remy Lelourie, Hollywood goddess, St. Claire's wife of five months, and the woman who once broke Rourke's heart.

Against all the visible evidence, Rourke embarks on a quest to prove Remy's innocence and finds himself slipping into the dark, hidden crevices of the city he thought he knew. As more people die, he will cross fates with Lucille Durand, a singer who has more than earned the right to sing the blues; Casey Maguire, a bootlegger who grew up poor but knows the price tags of the privileged and powerful; Mamma Rae, the juju master who tells the unwary more than they ever want to know; and Bridey O'Mara, widow of a slain cop, now sharing her bed and trading comfort with a vulnerable Rourke. In New Orleans, where no two events or two human beings are completely unrelated, they will lead Rourke to the truth about not only the St. Claire slaying but the last unscarred corner of his soul.

More than a masterfully crafted novel of suspense, MORTAL SINS is a brilliant tour de force-a deliciously dark portrayal of complex people and a city unlike any other on earth. "

" PENN WILLIAMSON lives in Mill Valley, California."