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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
a very compelling installment in a very good series, January 12, 2006
The third installment in the Valentine St. Cyr mystery series set in the early 1900s in New Orleans, "Rampart Street" proved to be very engrossing and compelling read, full of moody, vivid imagery, with an almost gritty feel one has come to expect from authors like Dashiel Hammett. All in all, this was a truly wonderful read, and I'm glad that I picked it up.
After a long absence, Valentine St. Cyr is back again in the historic red-light district of Storyville, New Orleans. But St. Cyr seems to be strangely apathetic and listless; so much so that when Alderman Alphonse Badel requests the unofficial "King of Storyville's," Tom Anderson, in recruiting St. Cyr to investigate the murder of a rich white man (John Benedict) found murdered on the seedy Rampart Street, Andersen cannot but wonder if St. Cyr is up to the job. However, when what seems to be a routine investigation as to what Benedict was doing on Rampart Street and why he was murdered soon turns into something much more tantalizing that could involve some rather powerful New Orleans movers and shakers, who in turn start pressuring St. Cyr to give up the investigation, St. Cyr finds himself intrigued almost against his will. And when a good friend gets murdered because of this case, things become personal as well. Now nothing will stop St. Cyr from discovering why Benedict was murdered and why so many powerful men are in a lather to stop this investigation....
I have always meant to pickup this series, but somehow never got around to it. Needless to say, when I finally did get around to reading a Valentine St. Cyr mystery novel, it would be the latest in the series and not the first. Not that this was a problem -- one needn't worry about having to play catch-up with "Rampart Street." No, for me the problem lay in that the mystery did get off to a bit of a slow start; and then there was the problem that I found myself automatically comparing it to Barbara Hambly's Benjamin January mystery series, also set in New Orleans, except that that one is set before the American Civil War, and found "Rampart Street" to lack much of the lyrical beauty that Hambly had successfully imbued her Benjamin January books with. However, this was just an initial reaction: about a few chapters into the book, I found myself to be so deeply engrossed in "Rampart Street" that I couldn't bare the put the book down! And while I didn't think that David Fulmer's prose style wasn't quite as lyrical or as poetical as Barbara Hambly's, I did think that he had done a successful job of imbuing the book with that moody, melancholic air that coloured the imagery as well as the attitudes and feelings of the characters he brilliantly brought to life. The storyline was a very intriguing and tantalising one, and David Fulmer did a wonderful job of maintaining the suspense and tension -- even if things slowed down a little towards the end of the book. All in all, in spite of certain shortcomings, I found "Rampart Street" to be a very well plotted and wrought novel, worthy of a 5 star rating.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A strong third entry in one of the best new detective series, January 21, 2007
I came across David Fulmer's book Chasing the Devil's Tail when it was new in paperback. At first glance the premise was interesting: a detective who was friends with the founder of jazz, and who was a colored Creole, in New Orleans about a hundred years ago. The story and especially the writing were good enough to carry the book through to its conclusion, and the sequel, Jass, was as good if not a bit better. This third entry is even a bit better than that, as Fulmer continues to grow as a writer, getting familiar and comfortable with his characters and plots.
In this current outing, the main character, Valentin St. Cyr, returns to New Orleans after spending 15 months wandering the country recovering from the way the previous book, Jass, ended. He's been in town for only a few weeks when a prominent businessman is killed, shot to death in Storyville, the rather raucous speakeasy neighborhood that St. Cyr patrols. St Cyr's old boss, Mr. Anderson, asks if he would be willing to look into the crime on behalf of the family. At first St. Cyr is reluctant, but he's soon persuaded to do what Mr. Anderson wants, and he begins to look into the crime. The investigation progresses, a second victim emerges, and it turns out that the prime witness in the second killing is a guy named George Reynolds. It turns out George is "seeing" Justine, St. Cyr's old girlfriend, who now works in a "house" as what amounts to a high-class prostitute. This of course complicates things greatly.
This is an interesting, multi-layered, complex book. The author doesn't hesitate to do things like kill of characters who've figured in previous books, have characters change, and have a backstory that's interesting and at times even unique working. It's a wonderful novel, and frankly I can't wait to see what happens next.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A good mystery!, January 3, 2006
Fulmer's melancholy but intriguing Valentin St. Cyr, a detective of Creole descent with obvious regrets, returns to New Orleans in Rampart Street, to solve the murder of a well-to-do man found dead in the seediest part of town.
While poking his nose in the affairs of the wealthy and the wild in his search for the truth, St. Cyr unravels a plot by a racist mover-and-shaker who is none too happy at the Creole's intrusions.
As the detective gets closer and closer to uncovering the truth, other men in the loop wind up dead, and even St. Cyr finds himself a marked man.
The New Orleans setting for Rampart Street is poignantly timed--as Fulmer's wonderful turn-of-the-century descriptions of this famed city, battle against with what we know happened there during the 2005 hurricane season.
Indeed, the strength of the story is in its detailed descriptions and multi-layered characterizations--the only hitches here being the occasional, current-day expletives, which seem to yank the reader back to the present each time they are used. The pace is an easy one, not driving and yet not sluggish and the point-of-view transitions are fluid and seamless.
Armchair Interviews says: Rampart Street will appeal to mystery lovers who are comfortable with a tale that doesn't spare them the aspects of life in a troubled red-light district, where tensions are often high, morals are often low and men wind up dead.
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