Customer Reviews

Lost River (Valentin St. Cyr Mysteries)

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David Fulmer's "Lost River" takes place in 1913 New Orleans. Valentin St. Cyr is "a lone wolf and skilled investigator who had followed an uncommon path." He had worked on both sides of the law and is now living with Justine Mancarre, a former prostitute ("sporting girl"), who has insisted that he cut all ties with his sordid past. He has done her bidding and now makes a good living working for respectable law firms and enjoying a life of placid domesticity. However, Storyville, the section of New Orleans filled with lucrative brothels and run by the aging Tom Anderson, the "King of Storyville," soon lures Valentin back.

Without warning, the red light district becomes a scene of murder and mayhem when various men are shot down in its streets for no apparent reason. At first, Valentin ignores the requests of those who want him to get involved. However, as the bodies pile up and the ineffectual and corrupt police get nowhere in their investigation, Valentin cannot resist stepping in to clean up the mess. He is risking his reputation, his new livelihood, and Justine's disapproval when he resumes his old occupation. However, the Creole detective knows the streets of Storyville better than anyone, and he alone has the contacts, the intellect, and the courage to tackle and solve these bizarre crimes.

"Lost River" is a campy look at a colorful era. Fulmer makes the most of the city's ambience, vividly describing a wild scene of free flowing liquor, drugs, and scores of hypocritical gentlemen who temporarily forget their wives and children while they consort with their favorite ladies of the evening. New Orleans is a scene of delicious decadence. We visit Basin Street, with its drugs, gambling tables, jazz musicians, and bordellos filled with women of all colors. The cast is lively: Valentin St. Cyr is a former police officer who "had been embroiled in several of the most remarkable cases" in New Orleans. The police hate him because he is as competent as they are incompetent. Justine is fiery, desirable, and madly in love with Valentin, although she would like to wring his neck when he ignores her entreaties. Anderson is a fabulously wealthy entrepreneur who, many are saying, is losing his touch. Emile Carter (Each) is a former street urchin who serves as St. Cyr's loyal assistant. Louis Jacob is a slimy, handsome, and self-serving young man who makes a play for Justine. Captain Picot is a crooked policeman who despises St. Cyr and would love to discredit him. There are also a number of powerful madams who run their businesses with a shrewd eye for the bottom line.

Unfortunately, the book has serious flaws that keep it from realizing its full potential. Fulmer repeats the same information again and again and he creates a villain whose motives make very little sense. They plot is too silly to take seriously, and there is little suspense to hold the reader's interest. In addition, the author spends several pages at the end laboriously explaining whodunit and why. Such heavy-handedness does not enhance the book's appeal. "Lost River" gets high marks for its vibrant setting and lively protagonists, but it falters because of Fulmer's labored and cliché-ridden prose and its implausible mystery.

The fourth book in the Valentin St. Cyr mystery series by David Fulmer (who, as an aside, looks separated from birth from TV ringleader Jerry Springer). The mystery takes place in steamy New Orleans of 1913 in the red-light district called Storyville.

Fulmer is a master of creating place - and readers will feel like they've been transported back in time. Storyville lifts off the pages and into the reader's imagination. You can smell the seedy tap houses and jazz joints. You can feel the hot, sticky humidity.

The writing is beautiful. The prose rolls like jazz music and Valentin St. Cyr fans will welcome "Lost River" into the series.

However, there are some stumbling blocks in storyline. The first is the mystery itself. It's like a street map that can't be refolded correctly. The traveler tries to retrace the proper steps, but ends up with new creases and folds and finally out of frustration stuffs the map back into the glove box. The mystery - which has to do with a series of murders to take over Storyville - has too many logic lapses to make much sense.

One of the most disappointing details gone wrong is that St. Cyr has his regular pistol (the Iver Johnson) confiscated by the police and is forced to use a backup. Yet at the end of the novel, his regular pistol is back in his hands for the final confrontation. No explanation is ever given (Fulmer should reprimand his editor for the mistake getting into print).

There's also a sense that Fulmer likes his main character just a bit too much. St. Cyr is a living legend in Storyville and Fulmer is only too happy to show us how he's worshipped. Yet even with these two challenges, "Lost River" is a solid entry and a good read for anyone who enjoys historical mysteries.

Like mysteries and pulp fiction? Then head over to the Dark Party Review!

In some respects LOST RIVER is a historical novel. Storyville was the red light district of New Orleans from 1897-1917 until it was closed down due to a law prohibiting dens of prostitution located near a military base. Tom Anderson was also a real person, often known as "The Mayor of Storyville."

The main character in the novel, Valentin St. Cyr, was Tom Anderson right-hand man until he fell in love with a prostitute and moved to the French Quarter where he became a "fixer" for several lawyers. He is lured back to Storyville when someone starts killing high-roller customers at some of the better houses.

The main problem with the book is that Fulmer telegraphs the resolution of his plot. He introduces the murderer, a former patient at a mental asylum, too early and it's not too hard to figure out who his boss is or the connection between the murderer and Buddy Bolden a childhood friend of Valentin's who now resides at the same mental institution the murderer escaped from. About the only mystery is the relevance of the slash the murderer carves across his victims' faces and that's almost an after thought.

Despite the above, LOST RIVER does have its merits. The setting itself is intriguing as are the jazz references and the tour around town Fulmer treats us to. Louis Armstrong even makes a brief appearance. I had not read any of the St. Cyr series prior to this one, and if awards mean anything, Fulmer has won the Shamus Award for best private eye novel.

"...Bobby thumbed a diesel down, just before it rained,
took us all the way to New Orleans..."

As disclosure, I've become a fan of David Fulmer's artistic ability. There are several Fulmer books, each of them exceedingly well written: "Chasing the Devil's Tail"."Rampart Street", "Jass", "The Dying Crapshooter's Blues", this latest effort, "Lost River", and the "Blue Door", whose Philadelphia prize fighter's theme is a departure from the New Orleans setting of the others. There may be others but if there are, I couldn't find them.

The first reviewer gave an excellent overview of this latest book, "Lost River", and little more about the story can be added without giving too much of it away, so in the interests of writing a complimentary review yet not repeating, I will say that in each of these books, the well-laid out story plan is presented fluidly, seamlessly, artfully. The subjects and settings - the red light district of Storyville, New Orleans - are secretive and forbidden, therefore, the intrigue is powerful, the reader is captured from the first page. This is no easy feat - it's easier to let the reader work awhile on the first few pages than it is to have them eating out of your hand from the first page, but Fulmer possesses that type of talent and has managed to accomplish it, for me at least.

It has plenty of the peripheral elements, and this review could be considered a medley for all of the Fulmer works; the human frailties are explored; a love story intertwining through the debauchery, murder, power, weakness, classes struggling against a wall of bigotry that must eventually fall due to the dogged perseverance of those willing to take the heat to break the wall; all of which is skillfully related, even beautiful - the storms, the street scenes, even the mention of the wild sea gulls along the bayou during a walk to a voodoo shack give special ambiance to the tale. For those readers who still harbor some romantic feelings, the possibility that the two principals of the love story that is intensely woven in the background but never pushed, between the beautiful "sporting girl" Justine, and the tough but strangely vulnerable Detective, Valentin, can actually triumph over the incredible odds of their surroundings, is in itself a powerful emotion adding to the mystery of it, since it took several books to build the climax of that that "Lost River" provides.

I recommend all of Fulmer's books to anyone who enjoys mystery novels and wants to find the best of them - the ones with substance.

Fulmer returns to New Orleans' Storyville circa 1913 in his latest Valentin St. Cyr mystery. Although St. Cyr has been gone from the center of vice and pleasure for three years, a spate of related murders has thrown Storyville into chaos. Storyville has built its reputation on the back of Tom Anderson, the King of Storyville, who has ruled the area with an iron fist, controlling crime and excess, ensuring safety for those who would follow their various carnal interests, from sporting houses to saloons, gambling casinos to opium dens. So far the experiment has been successful and lucrative, Anderson able to pay off the appropriate people to stay in business, graft for politicians, extra money for the cops, everyone happy with full pockets until a series of random murders strike fear into the gentry who commonly reward themselves for hard work with an evening in Storyville. Now all that is threatened- the next victim could be any man of means.

The author knows this territory well, mining the details that make historical fiction so endlessly fascinating: the madams who run their establishments, skillful at finances and controlling overzealous clients, catering to every need, regardless of its outrageous nature... for a price; and the fringe areas, where the downtrodden avail themselves of whatever pleasure is available for a penny, the dissolute cribs where desperate women barely survive the life, victim to crime and drugs. Even in the lowest place there is always trade, sometimes rich boys slumming, taking advantage of the helplessness of the poverty-stricken. No, Storyville isn't all shine and glitter, such accoutrements providing a façade for a brisk trade in human depravity, where virtually anything can be had for the right price. And Tom Anderson is feeling the effects of age and his body's infirmity, not as quick to respond to challenges, Storyville a little frayed around the edges. His relationship with St. Cyr in tatters, Anderson must rely on the detective's history for setting right the imbalances of an often treacherous place, in this case the random murders.

Reluctantly, the Creole detective is drawn back to Storyville, much to his dismay and the fear of his lover, Justine, which shows itself in a quiet fury. Maybe this time St. Cyr won't be so lucky and walk away. Valentin is inevitably seduced, clothed in the familiar sounds and scents of Storyville like a well-worn suit of clothes, if a bit out of practice. He will need an edge in this case, Police Captain Picot, St. Cyr's nemesis, waiting for any opportunity to snatch his prey without the King of Storyville to protect the detective this time. Indeed, St. Cyr catches the scent of duplicity early, but the case is cluttered with so many bodies and a mysterious killer that it costs Valentin valuable time, placing Justine in unexpected danger in a chilling conclusion. Even St. Cyr's best friend, Buddy Bolden, resurfaces for a brief instant from the insane asylum where he has been committed, a sad fate for the man whose magic horn gave birth to jass. And through it all runs the allure of Storyville and the music that brings New Orleans alive with a hope and exuberance that can never be extinguished. Luan Gaines/2008.

I LOVE this author. He transports the reader back to early 1900's New Orleans where the residents of Storeville are both vivid and colorful. I have read all of his novels except the one not taking place in NO. It might be a letdown.

The atmosphere, historical New Orleans setting, and suspenseful plotting are what make Fulmer's Valentin St. Cyr detective series so satisfying, and Lost River continues the trend. Perhaps not the best in the series, but not too far from that high level. Hopefully there's more to come from this author in this series, and his unrelated novels, by the way, are worth reading as well.

First Sentence: No one called him Buddy.

Ex-cop, ex-investigator for New Orlean's Storyville red-light-district boss, Tom Anderson, Valentin St. Cyr has moved to River Road with Justine, ex-prostitute and long-time love. Justine wants them to stay out of Storyville, get married and have a real life. It seemed possible, with Valerian now working for up-scale attorneys, until someone started randomly killing. The victims, who are shot, marked with a cut and left to be found in Storyville. Valentin, almost in spite of himself, is drawn back to stop the murders.

I'm so glad Fulmer has brought Valentin back as he is just a wonderful character. He is of mixed blood, intelligent, stilled and yet insecure in his relationship with Justine. Justine is a wonderful match for him in her street smarts and instincts from having been a "dove," but determined to find a real life with Valentin. Even if one has not read the previous books, Fulmer provides enough backstory that a new reader understands the characters; not something at which all authors excel.

I love his sense of time and place. Through Fulmer's writing we see the live of every economic stratum, from the wealthy to the squalid, and a city that holds onto old traditions while moving into an industrial age of motorcars and electric lights.

The story is very well plotted. There are wonderful twists and turns, suspense, and a bit of spite. All the elements combine into a recipe for a very enjoyable read. I just hope we don't have to wait another two years for Valentin's next case.

LOST RIVER (Hist. Mys-Valentin St. Cyr-New Orleans, LA-1913) - VG
Fulmer, David - 4th in series
Houghton, Mifflin Harcourt, 2009, US Hardcover - ISBN: 9780151011872

I have read every book in this series and have enjoyed the history and characters thoroughly. Therein contains some harsh period racial language that may offend some readers. New Orleans at the turn of the 20th century in the red light district offers fertile ground for some very interesting stories.
Don't get me wrong, this is not War and Peace but fun easy going reading.

This is the fourth book in this series that I have read. I believe that there is a Fifth one published earlier which I have not read (as yet).

I am hooked on this series about the New Orleans "back-of-town" detective, Valentin St. Cyr. The ones that I have read are all stand alones, but there are some references to the previous books.

At the end of Chasing the Devil's Tail, Valentin leaves New Orleans "forever" to get out of the corruption in the town and in the city government, especially the police department. He returns reluctantly in Rampart Street to help out his former boss, Tom Anderson (King of Storyville). At the end of that book, St. Cyr and his true love, former fancy girl, Justine move into an apartment on Spain street with both vowing to never again wander into Storyville. You can guess what happened with that vow when multiple murders start occurring at the various houses in Storyville. It appears that someone is attempting to destroy the whole system which keeps Storyville going and provides the finances for New Orleans (as well as the various politicians, policemen and others of influence). One of Valentin's key clues was provided by his old friend "Buddy" (Charles Bolden) who was committed to a mental asylum at the end of Chasing the Devil's Tail and has not spoken a single word since being in that place.

Like all of the previous series books, this is a great read (especially if you are familiar with New Orleans).