“Valentin’s fourth case immediately draws the reader into its tapestry of the Big Easy in a memorable bygone era.” – Kirkus Reviews
“Enjoyable . . . With his usual lucid prose, Fulmer details the grubby ‘crib’ life that exploited scores of women prostitutes while padding rich men’s wallets . . . those looking for some jazzy early 20th-century chills won’t be disappointed.” – Publishers Weekly
“[Fulmer's] feel for atmosphere and his increasingly subtle hand with character development keep the series from going stale . . . Early on, this series’ main appeal was its setting, but now it can hold its own with the most character-driven of historical mysteries.” – Booklist
“Fans of hard-boiled writers like Raymond Chandler, Bill Pronzini, and James Lee Burke will enjoy Shamus Award winner Fulmer’s latest. Highly recommended.” – Library Journal
The Los Angeles Times has praised David Fulmer’ Storyville mysteries featuring Creole detective Valentin St. Cyr as “a beautifully constructed, elegantly presented time trip to a New Orleans of the very early 1900s.”
Fulmer brings us back again in LOST RIVER: A Valentin St. Cyr Mystery [Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; January 2, 2009; ISBN 978-0-15-101187-2; $25]—but now it’s 1913, and the soulful Valentin has been absent from Storyville (New Orleans’ rowdy red-light district) for some time. He’s trying to live life on the straight-and-narrow with his longtime love, Justine, so when a man is found dead in a district brothel and the madam turns to St. Cyr for help, he resists. But when more bodies start to turn up, Valentin can’t help but come to the aid of the place—and the people—he tried to leave behind.
Right when Valentin thinks he has the case all sewn up, things fall apart: he’s been played, the police captain thinks he’s guilty of murder, and Justine has abandoned him for a handsome young man with a very sporty car. But is she being lured into a trap, too?
With this heart-pounding and richly atmospheric return to the streets of Storyville, Fulmer—whose previous book, the Philadelphia-set The Blue Door, won wide acclaim and will be released in paperback simultaneously with LOST RIVER—delivers a thrilling new chapter in the life of Valentin, “a hero for whom it’s easy to cheer” (Detroit Free Press).
DAVID FULMER, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Mystery/Thriller Book Prize and the winner of the Shamus Award for Best First PI Novel, has been a writer and producer for over twenty-five years. He lives in Atlanta, and is available for interviews in conjunction with LOST RIVER’s release.
LOST RIVER: A Valentin St. Cyr Mystery
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Company
January 2, 2009
ISBN 978-0-15-101187-2
$25
CONTACT: Patrice Taddonio, Publicist
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Company
