Customer Reviews

Jass (Valentin St. Cyr Mysteries)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(8)
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The death of a Negro musician is not something that turns many heads in
Storyville. But when several die, private detective Valentin St.Cyr is moved to
look into the situation. In no time, he finds resistance coming from all directions. No
one seems eager to have the truth uncovered.

Jass, the second book in the Valentin series, is set in the red light
district of New Orleans in the first part of the 20th century. The story is alive
with brothels and music halls, overflowing with the lively, new music called Jass.

David Fulmer has created an interesting character, in Valentin, and placed
him in a rich, colorful world that comes alive to us thanks to the author's
skillful descriptions. I am not normally a fan of historical novels, as they
often spend too much energy on setting and the characters suffer because of it,
but Fulmer manages to avoid overloading the pages with the time and place. He
gives us just enough to envision this wonderful world yet still keeps the
characters front and center. The characters themselves are realistic and engaging.

If you are a fan of music, you should enjoy the portrayal of Jazz at it's
birth. If you are a fan of historical novels, turn of the century New Orleans is
fascinating. If you enjoy complex characters, then Valentin should draw you in. In short, this is a book that can be enjoyed by just about everyone.

In 1909, Storyville is filled with rounders and criminals of all sorts and musicians have been known to enjoy the natural vices of women, drugs and gambling as well as any man. Someone is systematically killing black "Jass" players in Storyville, the red-light district of Louisiana.

When Jelly Roll Morton calls in Valentin St. Cyr, head of security for Tom Anderson, "The King of Storyville", St. Cyr doesn't attribute anything more cryptic to the deaths than a few musicians meeting an inevitable fate, engaged in dangerous pursuits. However, once Jelly Roll plants the seed of doubt, the former police detective monitors unfolding events with a nagging sense of unease. When all the musicians involved are connected to the same band and the only one still alive has gone into hiding, St.Cyr comes to the realization that something sinister may indeed be afoot. The detective digs in his heels, as is his nature, when both the police and the mayor demand that St. Cyr back off from the direction of the investigation.

The author uses the vernacular of the early 1900's, describing the infamous Storyville with the colorful adjectives of dissolution, profit and notoriety that so define the District. St Cyr has compassion for the women who endure the rigorous nights of Storyville, a life that seduces the young and beautiful, but exists for the pleasures of men of power and wealth. In this world, the bright lights of revelry fade to the devastating poverty and rampant crime exposed in the light of day.

Risk comes naturally to St Cyr, although he may have lost his edge lately, given to self-pity and too much drinking, personal relationships besieged with problems. But his well-honed instincts remain intact. Refusing to be intimidated by the easy violence of Anderson's rounders, the detective prowls the familiar alleys and bawdy houses, pushed to examine some of his own failings in the process. The bright lights and drunken laughter fade into the black depths of depravity as St. Cry uncovers some ugly truths that put his own future in jeopardy. The plaintive notes of musicians catch fire, as jass seduces the night, a plaintive refrain for senseless killings born of one fateful rampage, a heady mix of music, sex and drugs.

This novel portrays Storyville at its height of notoriety, where graft and greed happily coexist with beautiful women of all hues, painted and gilded for men's pleasure, where every desire can be accommodated, even the oblivion found at the end of a needle. This is a society that exists with its own mores, its own rules of conduct. St. Cyr is familiar with these streets, well-known to the few who wield the power and protect the clandestine acts of murderers; the dark covers a multitude of sins. But more powerful and seductive than any vice, a new kind of music, jass, wails through the midnight hours, refusing to be silenced in the agony of birth. Luan Gaines/2005.

This is a good one. The story structure is a little clunky and the shocking revelation at the end isn't very, but the writing is excellent, the characters are compelling and, best of all, the author creates the historical period, New Orleans in 1908, vividly and convincingly. You can smell the air, taste the chicory coffee and hear the thumping beat of the jass. This is the 2nd book in what I hope will be a longer series.

New Orleans seems a natural setting for the ever-growing mystery genre. Working my way through James Lee Burke, Robert Skinner, Ace Atkins, James Sallis and others, I discovered David Fulmer. Fulmer's second Valentin St. Cyr novel is as compelling as the first, and for quasi musicians like myself, dusted with enough references to musicians, locales, and songs of the time to add a delightful layer of authenticity to the storyline. Given St. Cyr's background, the reader has no problem with his close friendships with Buddy Bolden (Chasing) or Jelly Roll Morton (Jass). Fulmer adds enough historical detail about the New Orleans of the 1900s, that we can almost imagine what "Storyville" looked like, sounded like, and what the lives of the "fallen angels" WAS like. Likewise, we watch street musicians, whorehouse piano players, and small orchestras create "jazz" right in front of our eyes. Fulmer is able to make his novels near-graphic without lowering them to the level explicity we sometimes see on TV. St. Cyr is a dangerous man in a dangerous "district" who knows how to handle himself, yet, like most of us, he has self doubts and and fears which make him human.

I GREATLY look forward to reading Rampart Street.

My only complaint with Jass is a slight loss of verisimilitude: I'm not sure that police cars (there weren't many CARS at the time) had "sirens" and Gibson (guitars)didn't introduce the Kalamazoo line (as played by Jeff Mumford) until the late 1920s/early 1930s.

I ran across the first of David Fulmer's Valentin St. Cyr novels, Chasing the Devil's Tail, a year or so ago when it was just out in paperback. I bought it on a whim, and enjoyed the mix of atmosphere, history, Jazz, and New Orleans a hundred years ago enough that when a second book appeared, I immediately picked it up. I wasn't disappointed with the story: it's the sort of book that you'll think about for a good long while.

Valentin is still living in his relatively luxurious apartment on Magazine Street, still working security for Mr. Anderson, who runs Storyville, and still living with Justine, the girl he rescued in Devil's Tail. As this book opens, an old friend calls for him, demanding that he investigate the killings of several jazz musicians in New Orleans.

St. Cyr's friend turns out to be the renowned Jelly Roll Morton, a friend through St. Cyr's childhood friendship with King Bolden, the originator of Jazz and a character in the first book. Morton has suspicions that the musicians who've been killed have been playing in tony New Orleans, and that someone is opposed to them luring young whites into the dance halls they play. St. Cyr is originally skeptical, but when a bass-player-turned-preacher turns up dead, St. Cyr realises there's a much more sinister thread through all of this: the men were all members of a particular band some years before. It seems someone's after these particular jazz players, not all of them in general.

Fulmer seems very knowledgeable about the early roots of his sub-text, the music that was called "jass" at the time, which morphed into "jazz" later. His portrait of New Orleans at the turn of the last century rings true, his characters are interesting and well-rounded, and the whole story hangs together rather well. I enjoyed this book thoroughly, and look forward to Rampart Street, the next entry in the series.

David Fulmer won the Shamus award for the first book in the St. Cyr series, Chasing the Devil's Tail. Rampart Street, the third in the series was released January 2006.

Set in the Storyville (red light) district of New Orleans in the 1900s, in the early days of jazz, Jass re-creates that fabled time like old photographs coming to life. The street names--Marais, Villere, Iberville, Bienville, Bourbon, Basin, Chartres.... the language and dialects alone evoke a New Orleans more real in the memories than in actuality.

The characters include historical people like musician Jelly Roll Morton and cafee and bar owner Tom Anderson. Anderson has hired Valentin St. Cyr, a Creole ex-policeman, and set him up in an apartment. St. Cyr is a bouncer in his establishment, and also watches over some of the bordellos.

Anderson is called the "King of Storyville," as he seems to control a great deal of the district. At the start of the story, Jelly Roll calls St. Cyr in to tell him of several suspicious deaths of jass musicians. Eventually three die (an overdose, a stabbing, and a poisoning) before St. Cyr gets involved. Then another who has given up music is drowned. It turns out they had all played in the Union Hall Band.

St. Cyr is distracted by girlfriend Justine's boredom, continuing headaches, and her eventual defection back to the "sporting" life (she becomes the mistress of a wealthy man). Pressure is put on St. Cyr to stop investigating by his boss Anderson, who has the perfect control: he can reveal some damming information about Justine.

St. Cyr's long-time adversary on the police, Lt. Picot, is back and seems to know more than he should about these murders. The landlady of the stabbed musician is killed, as is Dominique, the young girlfriend of one, who had come to St. Cyr for safety. He is first thrown in to a dark depression (he finds Dominique's body), but soon is energized by his cold rage, and uncovers the sordid truth.

For more information on the development of jazz, check out A New History of Jazz by Alyn Shipton Continuum 2001.

Armchair Interviews says: Fulmer's excellent research has contributed to the steamy atmosphere of this great noir mystery.

Fulmer has given us a very well-executed story of life in the steamy, seamy patch of New Orleans called Storyville -- inarguably the cradle of jazz (or jass) as they spelled it then. The protagonist, private detective Valentin St. Cyr, is a very worthy character. Fulmer gives him a degree of depth and nuance that is authentic and which propels this novel forward with tension and suspense. Fulmer writes like he once lived in pre-World War I New Orleans. His familiarity with all facets of life -- particularly jazz and the men who played it -- in the exotic city is impressive. This is the second Fulmer book I've read ("Chasing the Devil's Tale" was the other). This effort outshines the first -- and that was a pretty good book also. "Jass" is not the kind of book that you can't put down. But it is solid in its delivery and the quality of Fulmer's writing. Fulmer is a word artist and Storyville is a worthy, irrestible canvas.

I was so excited to find this series after having a PASSIONATE love affair with the Benjamin January series (I couldn't read another book in between the series; I felt as if I would be cheating on Ben!). I got through the 1st in this series hoping it would get better with each one but as I struggle through the 2nd one, I have to admit defeat. It seems like the main character just sleeps, beats himself up, visits the King of Storyville, laments on the loss of his girlfriend and, oh, inquires about some dead people...and starts the process all over again the next day.

It would be ideal if you have some New Orleans jazz CDs playing in the background while you read this, but if you are at all familiar with music by Jelly Roll Morton and the like, you will practically hear it in your mind. The mystery involves the murder of several musicians and will have you entranced. The use of Jelly Roll Morton as a character along with the suggestion that another character is a youthful Louis Armstrong enhances the story for those who are jazz fans. Of course, this is also a must for those interested in New Orleans history. Ultimately, though, it's a well plotted mystery recommended to all.

Jass, David Fulmer, Harvest/Harcourt Publishing, 354 pp., $14.00, 2005.

Again turn of the century New Orleans' red-light district is the setting for David Fulmer's follow-up to Chasing the Devil's Tail, his first novel with former policeman/private detective Valentine St. Cyr. Fulmer's spare, evocative narrative creates an murder investigation steeped in opium and bourbon, police and political corruption, and marriage and love. Fulmer builds uses an emotional scaffolding of distrust and grace from the first novel. St. Cyr is a multiracial Creole detective, with a deep backstory that is revealed smoothly throughout the second novel. St. Cyr's emotional troubles hinder a solution to the murders of four jazz musicians. Lieutenant Picot, his former boss in the New Orleans police department, and his current employer, Tom Anderson, the "King of Storyville," challenge and threaten St. Cyr's loyalites. Both make demands that test his committment to a new and delicate relationship with a former prostitute. Historic figures such as Jelly Roll Morton and Madame Lulu are prominent in this story set in the Crescent City. Ghostly appearances of a female seem linked to both to the local voodoo clans and the serial killings of former members of a Storyville jazz band featured in Chasing the Devil's Tail. A tangible environment flows naturally out of the actions of the characters and impact of New Orleans on them. Fulmer's third in the series, Rampart Street, is on my desk.