<div>A tale of guns, greed, and girlfriends in post-hurricane New Orleans by the author of The Last Madam: &ldquo;One of the stars in mystery and crime fiction&rdquo; (James Lee Burke). Karen and Raynie are roommates. LaDonna is Karen&rsquo;s boss. Life in New Orleans after Katrina isn&rsquo;t easy, but they&rsquo;re all tough women&mdash;and they all want more. But right now, what they have more of is problems. Karen&rsquo;s past comes back to bite her, along with a Miami thug who wants to retrieve his stolen money. Raynie&rsquo;s dealing with a violent man out of control. And LaDonna&rsquo;s new lover has a dangerous idea . . . These three women are about to unite to confront the mess together. Along the way, they&rsquo;ll find out what money does to those who have it, lose it, pursue it, or steal it&mdash;and what happens when they try a little revenge on their rapid chase toward a better life . . . &ldquo;[A] fast-paced, action-packed novel which will especially delight female fans of Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiaasen. Wiltz writes about New Orleans as only an insider can. . . . Unputdownable, funny, sad, and true.&rdquo; &mdash;Valerie Martin, Orange Prize&ndash;winning author of Property </div>

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Shoot the Money

<div>The &ldquo;raunchy, hilarious, and thrilling&rdquo; true story of the incomparable Norma Wallace, proprietor of a notorious 1920s New Orleans brothel (NPR). Norma Wallace grew up fast. In 1916, at fifteen years old, she went to work as a streetwalker in New Orleans&rsquo; French Quarter. By the 1920s, she was a &ldquo;landlady&rdquo;&mdash;or, more precisely, the madam of what became one of the city&rsquo;s most lavish brothels. It was frequented by politicians, movie stars, gangsters, and even the notoriously corrupt police force. But Wallace acquired more than just repeat customers. There were friends, lovers . . . and also enemies. Wallace&rsquo;s romantic interests ran the gamut from a bootlegger who shot her during a fight to a famed bandleader to the boy next door, thirty-nine years her junior, who became her fifth husband. She knew all of the Crescent City&rsquo;s dirty little secrets, and used them to protect her own interests&mdash;she never got so much as a traffic ticket, until the early 1960s, when District Attorney Jim Garrison decided to clean up vice and corruption. After a jail stay, Wallace went legitimate as successfully as she had gone criminal, with a lucrative restaurant business&mdash;but it was love that would undo her in the end. The Last Madam combines original research with Wallace&rsquo;s personal memoirs, bringing to life an era in New Orleans history rife with charm and decadence, resurrecting &ldquo;a secret world, like those uncovered by Luc Sante and James Ellroy&rdquo; (Publishers Weekly). It reveals the colorful, unforgettable woman who reigned as an underworld queen and &ldquo;capture[s] perfectly the essential, earthy complexity of the most fascinating city on this continent&rdquo; (Robert Olen Butler). </div>

The Last Madam

<div>The murder of a rare book expert leads New Orleans PI Neal Rafferty down a rabbit hole of Big Easy corruption in this &ldquo;lean, smart&rdquo; debut mystery (Kirkus Reviews). Nothing is what it seems in New Orleans, but this murder was one for the books . . . two books to be exact; a missing set of William Blake rarities&mdash;and street-smart detective Neal Rafferty has been hired to find them. Instead, what he finds is the body of a rare book dealer and a growing list of females&mdash;each with a pretty good reason to do him in. There&rsquo;s his all too ready to confess wife, his unhappy, illegitimate daughter, and the beautiful, sensual Catherine&mdash;a woman who&rsquo;s a lot easier to love than she is to believe. What does a tough private eye do when he finds himself falling for the prime suspect in a murder case? The answers, and the truth, may be hiding in the steamy streets and sleazy bars of New Orleans, and Rafferty&rsquo;s got to choose the right one . . . choose between a truth he can live with and one he could end up dying for.</div>

The Killing Circle

<div>A &ldquo;likable, savvy New Orleans private eye&rdquo; deals with marriage, murder, and Mardi Gras in this mystery by the author of The Last Madam (Publishers Weekly). Richard Cotton, aspiring to become district attorney, has hired private detective Neal Rafferty to keep tabs on his wife&mdash;who, in turn, has hired someone else to keep tabs on him. It&rsquo;s almost Mardi Gras in 1980s New Orleans, and when the masks go on they hide a multitude of sins&mdash;like bribery, corruption, and drug-running, not to mention Richard Cotton&rsquo;s own particular secret. And once bodies start showing up, Rafferty realizes that adultery is far from the only scandal. In this town, all things eventually settle into the Mississippi River mud. It&rsquo;s just a question of what stays buried . . . &ldquo;Wiltz bring a refreshing individual outlook to the formula of hard-boiled detective fiction.&rdquo; &mdash;The Washington Post Book World </div>

A Diamond Before You Die

<div>New Orleans PI Neal Rafferty is out to avenge the murder of an old flame in this mystery from the national-bestselling author of The Last Madam. A phone call at midnight. A cocktail lounge on New Orleans&rsquo;s West Bank. A young woman who wants to photograph prostitutes and re-create Bellocq&rsquo;s famous Storyville portraits. And murder. These are the threads that lead private eye Neal Rafferty into a labyrinth of danger in the Crescent City . . . where crime is always hot, spicy, and full-flavored with suspense. The phone call is from his old girlfriend Jackie Silva. A loan shark named Bubba Brevna is threatening to collect from Jackie the traditional way . . . with pain. He&rsquo;s already moved into her establishment&mdash;the Emerald Lizard&mdash;with a bouncer called Godzilla, some call girls, and a set of muscular twins with one brain between them who are running &ldquo;chicken drop&rdquo; contests on the dance floor. What Rafferty can&rsquo;t foresee is that, within days, the Emerald Lizard will be torched and Jackie Silva will be dead; soon, the young photographer will be missing. Rafferty begins a dark journey of guilt, grief, and revenge amid the stink of corruption that will send him into the deadly shadows of narrow streets and twisted hearts.</div>

The Emerald Lizard

<div>From the national-bestselling author: A &ldquo;powerful, heartbreaking&rdquo; tale of racial tensions and tragic violence in New Orleans&mdash;based on true events (Publishers Weekly). Thea Tamborella returns to New Orleans after a ten-year absence to find the city of her birth changed, still a place of deep contradictions, a sensuous blend of religion, tradition, bonhomie, and decadence, but now caught in a web of fear caused by bad economic times, crime, and racial unrest. Burgess Monroe is the drug kingpin of the Convent Street Housing Project. He has always known he would die young, and now he wants to use his wealth to do something for the poor people of the project where he grew up. Delzora Monroe, Burgess&rsquo;s mother, works as a housekeeper in the mansion on Convent Street that Thea inherits from her aunt. Zora loves her son, but she knows that he has used his life to do evil, and she mistrusts his motives. She fears the repercussions when an attraction develops between Thea and Burgess. The violence that results from the death of the lone cop has the city in the grips of fear. On both sides of Convent Street, the rich and the poor, that violence is about to be played out . . .</div>

Chris Wiltz
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Books By Chris Wiltz (6 Books)

Shoot the Money

The Last Madam

The Killing Circle

A Diamond Before You Die

The Emerald Lizard

Glass House

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© 2024 OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED MEDIA

Chris WiltzFollow this author

Books By Chris Wiltz (6 Books)

Shoot the Money

The Last Madam

The Killing Circle

A Diamond Before You Die

The Emerald Lizard

Glass House

RELATED POSTS ABOUT CHRIS WILTZ

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More from

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© 2024 OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED MEDIA

Chris Wiltz
Follow this author