Happy New Year! Like fellow PLWers Alina Rubin, Jillianne Hamilton, and Edie Cay, I’m excited to share news of my 2024 release with you.
And—drum roll, please—my 2024 release is THE MAGNOLIA VOODOO BRAWLER.
As a follow-up to THE RED-HOT BLUES CHANTEUSE—my first Viola Vermillion Vaudeville Mystery—THE MAGNOLIA VOODOO BRAWLER plops readers right back into the ambitious, dog-eat-dog world of vaudeville, circa April 1919. This time Viola, her RED-HOT partner-in-detection and budding love interest Jimmy Harrigan, and his pal Erwin, are in jazz-crazy New Orleans, where murderous mayhem takes center stage at the Orpheum Theater’s Sunday matinee. When Viola’s long-time friend Gracie is strangled by her own stocking, Viola and Jimmy must investigate.
Of course being Viola, solving Gracie’s murder isn’t the only thing she’s working on. She also needs to figure out exactly who—Thaddeus Rutherfurd or his wife Eleanor—triggered the munitions accident that killed her sister Blanche. And since Viola’s too hot to be on stage under her own name, she needs to get back on stage anyway she can. Last, but not least, Viola needs to control her simmering attraction to Jimmy, especially since his return to New Orleans includes marrying his long-time sweetheart.
THE MAGNOLIA VOODOO BRAWLER is a story of Murder, Jazz, and—maybe, just maybe—Jimmy’s Marriage. With a lot of entertaining New Orleans history throughout. Because as readers of my FANNY NEWCOMB & THE IRISH CHANNEL RIPPER know, I love New Orleans history.
As you also might know, the Viola Vermillion Vaudeville Mysteries was inspired by a cache of vaudeville memorabilia (photos! scrapbooks! sheet music! recordings!) I inherited from real-life chanteuse Elsie Clark.
And just as Elsie inspired the creation of Viola, I looked to Elsie’s husband, her piano accompanist Nelson Story, to breathe life into Jimmy’s character. Here’s just a little history about Nelson: Born in 1888 in Kentucky, Nelson played violin as a child and entered vaudeville as a young man. He toured around the United States and performed in Asia. I’m not sure when or where Nelson and Elsie first crossed paths, but the two vaudeville performers were married in 1913 in Australia, Elsie’s home country.
Nelson and Elsie performed in American vaudeville for years, both under Elsie’s name alone, or together as The Two Storys. As the moving pictures eased vaudeville out of the entertainment industry, Nelson turned to movie work, and his largest roles were in Hal Roach’s Taxicab series in the early 1930’s.
More Nelson. Because even a hundred years ago, every girl’s crazy ’bout a sharp-dressed man.
Like Nelson, Jimmy’s a powerhouse piano player who loves entertaining on stage. Jimmy’s favorite stage in New Orleans is at The Bon Temps, a “sweat-soaked, low-lit room in the Tango Belt, the least-respectable edge of the French Quarter.”
In fact The Bon Temps is where THE MAGNOLIA VOODOO BRAWLER begins, as Viola suddenly realizes….
“I thought I’d heard jazz before but I was wrong.
I’d listened to jazz acts in vaudeville theaters from Trenton to Seattle, heard Bert Kelly’s Jazz Band in his own Chicago venue, and cheered from the sidewalk when the ferocious Harlem Hellfighters marched down New York’s Fifth Avenue in February. And of course, I’d heard hot jazz phonograph recordings, like the Original Dixieland Jass Band playing their Tiger Rag.
I’d swooned to every jazz variation—melancholy and sweet; by-the-sheet-music and improv; jumping and humping. I’d heard white bands, black bands, Creole bands, and girl bands perform, but none of that jazz compared to the piercing, heart-rending notes coming from the tiny stage of The Bon Temps club tonight. ”
THE MAGNOLIA VOODOO BRAWLER reaches the publishing stage in November and I hope you keep up with me this year as I share stories about Murder, Jazz, New Orleans, and—maybe, just maybe—Jimmy Harrigan’s Marriage.
Last Nelson image for now…because every hero likes to flex his muscles at the beach!
Ana Brazil writes historical crime fiction celebrating bodacious American heroines. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, the Historical Novel Society, and a founding member of Paper Lantern Writers.
Ana’s latest historical mystery is THE RED-HOT BLUES CHANTEUSE, which features murder, mayhem, and music in 1919 San Francisco. Her award-winning historical mystery FANNY NEWCOMB & THE IRISH CHANNEL RIPPER is set in Gilded Age New Orleans.
Great post, great photos and history! I loved The Rd-Hot Blues Chanteuse and can’t wait for Voodoo Brawler.