New Orleans Heat — O'Neil De Noux

Heat in New Orleans - temperatures in the high 90s, humidity near 100%, the days steamy and stifling, the nights steamy and sultry. Add the heat New Orleans police must use to catch murderers.In the summer of 1901, a black man is lynched in the savage swamp on the east side of New Orleans known as Bayou Sauvage. Detective Jacques Dugas and his new partner, Eddie Rosata, are sent to the mosquito-infested swamp to investigate. The case is a whodunit and an whoisit as the victim is unidentified. There is no law against lynching a black man in 1901 but Dugas will pursue who committed this horrific murder and find a way to punish them. Detectives are distracted by another case, the wife of an uptown friend of the governor is missing. Newly-wed Dugas is also distracted by his wife Evelyn's sexual antics.A labyrinth of clues draws Dugas to a nudist colony across the lake from the city where Evelyn can play out one of her sexual fantasies as Dugas links both of his cases to the colony.About the AuthorBorn in New Orleans, O'Neil De Noux is a prolific American writer of novels and short stories with 46 books published, over 400 short story sales and a screenplay produced. Much of De Noux's writing is character-driven crime fiction, although he has written in many disciplines including historical fiction, children's fiction, mainstream fiction, mystery, science-fiction, suspense, fantasy, horror, western, literary, religious, romance, er*tica and humor.Mr. De Noux is a retired police officer, a former homicide detective. His writing has garnered a number of awards including the UNITED KINGDOM SHORT STORY PRIZE, the SHAMUS AWARD twice (given annually by the Private Eye Writers of America to recognize outstanding achievement in private eye fiction), the DERRINGER AWARD (given annually by the Short Mystery Fiction Society to recognize excellence in short mystery fiction) and POLICE BOOK of the YEAR (awarded by PoliceWriters.com). Two of his stories have been featured in the prestigious BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES annual anthology (2003 and 2013).In 2012, O'Neil De Noux received an Artist Services Career Advancement Award from the Louisiana Division of the Arts for BATTLE KISS, a 320,000-word epic of love and war set against the panorama of the Battle of New Orleans. De Noux received the 2015 Literary Artist of the Year President's Award from the St. Tammany Parish Art's Council, St. Tammany Parish, LA. He is a past Vice-President of the Private Eye Writers of America. For additional O'Neil De Noux material, go to: http://www.oneildenoux.com